Fish loving bird
by WriterKos
Summary: Morgan: As a man, not as a profiler, how would you describe it?   Reid: It was… the most intense sexual experience I've ever had.  LAST CHAPTER UP
1. Nightly visit

**_Title: Fish loving bird_**  
Author: WriterKos  
Rating: M  
Parings: Reid/OFC  
Characters: Reid, OC, and the gang.  
Genres: Romance, Character Study  
Warnings: Sex Plot What Plot - A tiny bit of a case file, but not much.  
Summary: **_Morgan_**: As a man, not as a profiler, how would you describe it? **_Reid_**: It was… the most intense sexual experience I've ever had.

A/n: This fic was inspired by the quote below from the movie Ever After. It is also inspired by a draft of a story I'm currently working on, but definitely this scene would NEVER happen in Criminal Minds and it won't fit in the case file I'm currently writing. They don't belong to me; I'm not making any money with it, just taking them for a walk and a wild ride in the crazy side of life. After all, there is no way they would let Reid do this in the show. NO WAY. Hahahaha.

**_Chapter 01: Nightly Visit_**

**_Danielle_**_: A bird may love a fish, signore, but where will they live?__  
_**_Leonardo da Vinci_**_: Then I shall have to make you wings._

**_Chapter 01: Nightly Visit_**

The dark shades of the night are perfect to hide the shadow as it creeps along the window ledge. It slowly lifts the bent metal of the lock that keeps his window closed. Once unlocked, the shadow slowly opens the window, wincing lightly at the rasp of metal over metal.

The keening noise, however, does not wake the slumbering man in the hotel room. He simply moves in the bed and continues sleeping, unaware of the incoming invader.

The shadow steps gingerly into the room, feeling the thick carpet beneath its feet. Its footsteps are silent as it approaches the bed.

The sleeping man sighs, his long brownish hair falling on the pillow creating a halo atop his head.

The dark figure takes a moment to study his relaxed features before sitting lightly on the bed. The added weight on the mattress shifts the sleeping man, causing him to wake from his slumber.

"What…?" Reid lazily opens his eyes and blinks against the darkness. He receives the scare of his life when he notices a person sitting at the foot of his bed.

A light screech escapes his throat, as he drags the blanket up to his chest in a vain attempt at protection. He fumbles for the light, that finally illuminates the figure that nearly scared him to death.

"Expecting someone else, Dr. Reid?" The intruder says in its soft and melodic voice.

The light highlights the woman's pale oval face, with perfect cupid pink lips glistening with a faint gloss. Her skin is as white as alabaster, and her beautiful soft caramel eyes are gazing at Reid with barely restrained mirth. Her long black hair is pulled back in a ponytail, the soft curls carefully controlled into a neat braid that rests over her shoulder.

"Ahh what… Monica? What are you doing here?" Reid asks as he pushes pillows behind his back and leans against them. He folds his arms in a protective gesture and stares at the thief currently sitting on his bed in his hotel room at two o'clock in morning.


	2. Meeting Moni

_a/n: the previous chapter 2 wasn't really working with the rest of the story, so I've added some changes. _

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* * *

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**_Chapter 2: Meeting Moni_**

Hotch thumbed through the file on the murders he and the team had been investigating for the last three days as they piled into the elevator. The Unsub seemed to be targeting jewelry thieves in the upstate New York area.

The first killing - in a hotel room in downtown Albany - resulted in a man left dead after having his throat cut. The room was ransacked following the murder, as if the killer had been looking for something. Not long after the bodies of two well known jewelry thieves turned up in allies near areas that were frequently patrolled by police, both brutally tortured before having their throats slashed like victim number one. There was no connection between the two thieves and the first victim, who had been an investigative reporter, besides the killer's M.O.

"Reports list a robbery in another room, located on the same floor as our first victim. Jewelry was stolen, but the room was left in pristine condition. No sign of forced entry to be found." Hotch stated to his teammates as they got off at the street level and made their way to their shared suburban.

"Maybe the unsub walked in on a robbery and, after finding that our first victim didn't have what he wanted, decided to hunt down every thief that could have possibly stolen what he's looking for." Reid theorized.

"He struck again last night." Hotch informed.

"No cooling off period." Morgan said as he pulled the car out of the garage deck.

"No. Victim's name is Declercq, another thief; although he's been out of the business for some time now. He retired after developing early onset Alzheimer's, but before that he was renowned for his ability to get in and out of a place unnoticed." Hotch said.

"So what's he been doing since then." Reid asked from the back seat.

"His last address is a small cabin in upstate New York. My guess is he was laying low. You can't keep working as a thief if your hands can't obey the simplest commands of your mind without shaking uncontrollably. Prentiss and Rossi are heading to the crime scene."

"And where are we going?" Morgan glanced over at Hotch who was still flipping through the file.

"His old rival lives not too far from here."

CM CM CM CM

The young woman sat across from the small house she had seen the men enter not long before. She bit her fingernails nervously, a habit she exhibited whenever she felt under pressure.

_They must be cops_, she thought. It couldn't be coincidence that three men in a blacked out SUV decided to pay a visit to a known thief the day after another one of his competitors is killed.

She perked up a little bit as she saw the young man exit the house with two older agents. Pale skin, long brownish hair, untamed and moving with the wind, stubbornly hanging over his eyes. He walked in hurried steps, as if he is in a hurry to get wherever he was going. His long legs seemed endless when combined with his lanky frame.

_Uhm, pretty, _she thought.

She sighed a long suffered sigh, saddened at the thought of her life now, without Delercq. He had taken her under his wing as his apprentice a long time ago, when she was nothing more than a little girl with no one to pay attention to her needs. He taught her all his tricks with the intent of her continuing his legacy.

She wasn't into big expensive jewelry, and she usually chose very carefully what she would take. Declercq had taught her that the most satisfying thing about a job well done wasn't the robbed artifact or jewelry, but the robbery itself, the thrill of the participating in a gentleman's game, and being deemed invisible.

Thanks to his teachings, she was invisible now, hiding in the shadow of the house as the agents made their way back to their car. Just as they were crossing the street a speeding car came out of nowhere- its license plates covered with a plastic bag- rushing towards them. The two agents ran to safety, but the younger one was at a loss for escape. Thinking quickly, she ran out of hiding and threw herself at the young agent, saving him at the very last moment.

Hotch and Morgan ran towards the scene, finding Reid with his hands and arms full of female curves. The woman's head had hit the curb during her daring rescue, and a trickle of blood was now running from her forehead. They immediately helped Reid and the stranger up. The woman smiled faintly at them before fainting dead to the world, no doubt from a concussion.

"Are you okay, Reid?"

"Yes, I am. But she's not." He carefully laid the unconscious woman on the floor, holding her head in one of his hands, at the same time that he sought a handkerchief in one of his pockets to stop the bleeding on her head. It was just a small cut, but it was bleeding nonetheless.

"She fits the description the suspect gave us of the young woman, Declercq's apprentice." Hotch said to Reid over Moni's unconscious form.

"She's a thief?" Reid asked with surprise.

CM CM CM CM

Moni opened her eyes, blinking repeatedly against the light, and frowned as she saw the boring beige color of the ceiling.

_My ceiling isn't beige. _

"Hey, you're awake."

She looked to the side, and saw the smiling face of the dark skinned man who was with the nice looking young man and the other one.

"Where am I?" she asked softly, and moaned as she tried to sit up on the sofa. It was brown and boring, completely lacking any prettiness. She glanced at the dark skinned man, who brought a chair closer to the sofa and sat in front of her. He offered a glass of water which she sipped gladly.

"You are in the 18th PD, kid. Care to tell me your name?"

She looked at him for a whole minute, studying his face before saying in a soft voice, that he had to make an effort to hear, "Monica Law, but everyone calls me Moni. You?"

"I'm SSA Derek Morgan, with the FBI."

"Oh... Good."

"Good?"

"Yep," Moni studied the friendly face of the agent, and explained, "Declerq told me to seek you out, as I'm in danger and he could not protect me."

"Why would you need our protection?"

She lowered her chin to her chest and scratched her head distractedly, sighing deeply before sticking her hand in the back pocket of her jeans trousers.

"Because people are being killed...because I've stolen this."

She showed the small pendrive in her hand, and deposited in Morgan's hands at the same time that Rossi, Hotch and Reid entered the adjacent room to where she was being held. Moni's attention was immediately drawn to what was happening on the other side of the glass.

"Why did you steal the pen drive?" Morgan asked.

She shrugged. "I thought the pictures on the pen drive were pretty, so I wanted it for myself."

Monica stole another sly glance at Reid, who was currently talking with Rossi about the importance of the discovery of the pen drive. It was not missed by Morgan, neither were the first three glances. In fact, her fascination towards Reid- who was obviously totally unaware of the thief's simmering attraction towards him - had Morgan's spider senses tingling.

"Kid, why did you reveal yourself to us? You have to know that, after catching this killer, we will be forced to arrest you for robbery." Morgan asked.

She turned her caramel eyes on Morgan. He immediately wondered how Reid would react when she turned all her charm on him. He would probably melt in a pool of goo on the floor, or start sputtering nonsense data while she pounced on him, Morgan thought.

She smiled a Mona Lisa smile at him, but still didn't answer his question; instead going back to her currently favorite activity: Reid watching.

"Do you like what you see?"

She didn't even look at Morgan as she answered, "What's not to like?"

"Why did you save him from that car?"

He waited patiently for her answer, seeing her sit back comfortably in her seat to better watch the genius profiler in the other room just through the glass window. Reid gestured wildly with his hands as he talked excitedly to Hotch about… whatever.

"He's pretty. It would be pity to have such a beautiful work of art crunched against metal, guts and blood sprawled all over the road."

She supported her chin on her hand and sighed a lovelorn sigh. Morgan snickered, barely holding his mirth at the situation.

_The thief is smitten with the genius federal agent. Man, Garcia would love to hear that. _

CM CM CM CM

The profilers had to agree that Moni wasn't dangerous, a little bit obsessive compulsive about the pretty things she finds, but she was still harmless.

There was no way she could have faked her strong reaction to the sight of the blood and guts in the pictures Hotch had shown her when he had tried to check her as a suspect for the murders.

She had initially refused to look at the pictures during interrogation, but after some insistence she took a glance at them and promptly vomited all over the table, the pictures, Hotch's shoes and hands, herself, everywhere. She then cowered in the corner of the interrogation room, hugging her knees, shivering and covered in vomit, repeating over and over again: _Moni can't see blood_. _Moni can't see blood_.

"She can't be our killer." Reid said from the observation room.

"No." Rossi replied, "Our killer took great pleasure in inflicting pain and suffering on his victims. He watched over them while they bled to death and enjoyed it. This girl would have a panic attack if she saw the disemboweled body of a cat on ground while walking down the street."

Moni sat on the floor shivering, while the images of the bloody bodies assaulted her mind. She was driven by her obsessive-compulsive personality which forced her to fixate all her desires on one single object until she achieve it. However, she also had a very childlike, innocent attitude and perception of things. She knew exactly where the limits of right or wrong were, and she did her best never to cross said limits, unless they stood between her and whatever pretty thing she desired most.

She adored her mentor like a father, and was crushed by his death. Seeing the pictures of his murder had not helped her emotional state. She sat with her head on her folded arms, quietly crying. Not long after, the sound of a door opening and closing filled the room. Reid's soft words, as he sat down with her on the dirty interrogation floor, soothed her until she was finally able to lift her tear stricken face. Meanwhile, the team agreed to keep her under protective custody.

Moni was later placed in a room at the their hotel so they could watch over her. Cops were assigned to keep watch over her room door, while the agents went to their own rooms to rest.

They never expected her to sneak out through the window and take a walk on the ledge towards Reid's room.


	3. We can't do this

**_Chapter 3: We can't do this_**

Monica smiled down at Reid's bewildered face, her caramel eyes staring into his brown ones with an intensity that made him shiver despite the covers he had pulled up to his chin during his moment of shock.

"Monica, ah… maybe you'd better go back to your room," he said very slowly, wondering if he screamed, would his colleagues come help him? Would they come to his rescue if they knew he was being attacked by a pretty thief, or would they just shrug and leave him to fight for his own virtue, he wondered.

He watched her slender fingers slide up to her hair to unravel her long braid and free her hair from the pony tail holder. She shook her head, and Reid swallowed hard, as the midnight curls fell free over her back in soft waves.

"Monica, what are you—" Reid's question was cut short along with his breathe when she lifted her black t-shirt over her head, exposing smooth white skin and a cherry pink bra with butterflies embroidered on it, covering the soft curves of her breast. He couldn't stop his gaze from being immediately drawn to her rising chest.

Pleased that she had caught his attention, Monica kicked off her soft black sneakers along with her socks before coming to kneel on the bed in front of the agent that had been in her thoughts all day. She slipped her hand into the waistband of her black track pants and slowly lowered them, her gaze never wavering from Reid's face, which flushed a deep red as she exposed more of her body to him.

She threw her pants to the floor, and for a moment simply kneeled before him in only her underwear. Despite his distress over the situation she had placed him in, Reid couldn't help his body's reaction to seeing her long silky legs slightly spread before him on the bed.

Monica silently crawled towards Reid, until she straddled his hips, settling herself lightly on his lap. Her face hovered over his, and she smirked deviously before leaning over and kissing him lightly on his cheek. Before he knew what was happening, she was showering kisses down his neck. The soft touch of her lips made him shiver.

Sensing that he was steadily losing his bearings, Reid moved his hands to her shoulders and pushed her away far enough so that he could look into her face.

"What are you doing?" he asked again.

"Don't you like what you see?" she bit her lip coyly.

"No…" At Monica's confused look, he immediately corrected himself, "yes, I mean … ahh well… you are very pretty and attractive, but what are you doing in my room? Where is your protective detail?"

She shrugged, unconcerned with the cops currently standing outside of her door who probably thought she was asleep in her own bed.

"I'm trying to seduce you; and they are probably still there, thinking I'm asleep."

She framed his face with her hands, again touching his lips with hers. Despite her wanton behavior, her kiss was almost childlike: just a touch of lips and gentle suckling, slowly asking permission for more advanced attacks.

Reid's hands were still on her shoulders. He tensed, seeing her intent, and dreading her imminent attack. Her gentle approach however, surprised him. After the first few, he found himself responding to her timid kisses. His hands slid from her shoulders down to her arms in a soft caress, and his mouth opened to deepen their kiss.

They sank into it, acknowledging only the taste of one another until their lack of air eventually forced them to tear themselves from each other. Both stared at the other. Only their struggling breathing could be heard in the room.

Moni ran her fingertips softly across his cheek, following the path of her fingers with her eyes. He continued to stare at her face, into her light brown eyes that were, at the moment, glazed with passion.

"We can't," he whispered, dropping his head back and staring at the ceiling.

Silence hung between them for a full minute. He looked back down to meet her eyes and is caught off guard by the amount of pain in them. The deep hurt that simmered in her beautiful eyes paralyzed him; what's worst was he couldn't figure out its origin.

She moved her hand from his chin to his neck, holding him by the back of his head in an attempt to kiss his lips and hopefully reignite the passion they had just minutes before. This time, all gentleness was gone, surpassed by a hunger and desperation that Reid felt in her tense shoulders and shaking hands. She guided his left hand from her shoulder to her breast, lowering the pink lace and molding his fingers against her firm flesh.

He moaned in desperation, silently cursing himself as his body disengaged from his brain in reaction to the stimulus given by a firm willing female body straddling his _very_ willing male body.

He lifted his other hand from her shoulder to push her away again, but he somehow ended up embracing her torso instead. His hand roamed every inch of her back, his fingers settling into her long curly black hair and pulling her tighter against him. Despite the lack of space between their bodies, his left hand stayed firmly attached to her right breast. He squeezed it softly, making Moni wiggle closer to him in reaction.

She tugged his blankets away, wanting to lie on top of him with no obstruction, not even his flannel pajamas that were still standing between them. They eagerly devoured each other, as Moni worked diligently on the buttons of his nightshirt. She finally opened it, exposing him for her fingers to whisper over his skin then she wiggled one of her small hands under the waistband of his pajama pants and firmly grasped him in her fingers, squeezing his hard flesh.

He moaned deeply and broke the kiss, throwing her on the bed before rushing to stand his feet. He stood awkwardly by the side of the bed, extremely uncomfortable in his own skin as he shifted to conceal the hard on tenting his sleeping pants. He ran his nervous hands over his face, and mentally cursed his own stupidity as he stared down at the almost naked woman sprawled on his bed. Her liquid caramel eyes were still on him, welcoming him, as if he hadn't just run from her arms.

"We can't do this." he said again.

"Why not?"

"Because we can't."


	4. Please, don't hurt me

**_Chapter 4: Please, don't hurt me_**

"Why not?"

"Because we can't."

"That's not a good answer." Moni replied as she sat on the bed, using his blankets to cover herself in a late show of modesty. Reid fidgeted by the side of the bed, and discreetly adjusted himself to ease the painful chaffing of the material against his member.

"That's the only one I can give you for now." he replied.

She folded her arms, like a child, and pouted.

"Why not?"

"Why? You ask me why? My God, look at you."

He pointed to Moni, who was sitting ramrod straight on his bed, staring at him with confused eyes.

"You… you are a thief. I'm a Federal Agent. It would never work out."

She shrugged, unimpressed with his answer.

"It's not supposed to work out. It doesn't have to." She stated just as matter-of-factly.

"It's not supposed to? Monica, for Christ's sake, what did you expect from me? You thought that I would simply jump at the opportunity just because… because..."

She looked at him impassively for a moment, not really understanding why he was so mad about what had just transpired between them.

"Well, you are a man, apparently with a healthy libido." She pointed to his lap. Reid blushed deeply and took one of the pillows to cover his erection, while she kept on talking, "You enjoyed my attention and my kisses, why shouldn't we enjoy tonight and screw tomorrow?"

Reid stared at her for a long moment, before he shook his head in horror. His brilliant mind, for once, failed to give him the words to reason with someone, particularly _this_ little nutty thief.

"I don't do things like that. I don't go around sleeping with people just because I feel like it, and neither should you. That's dangerous and irresponsible and…"

She frowned a little, and started playing with the blanket covering her lap. She traced whirls and circles on it, avoiding his eyes for the first time that night.

"Do you like girls?" She whispered softly to Reid's ears alone.

"Yes, I like girls. Why are you asking me that?"

"No," she shook her head vehemently, peeking at him out of the corner of her eyes. "I meant do you like _little_ girls?"

"Little girls?"

"Yes, you know, _younger_ girls."

"Younger girls…" Reid's eyes became comically wide when he finally understood what she was asking, "you mean, like children? God, no, I like women, I love women. I don't like little girls. Why are you asking me that?"

Moni shrugged as if it was just a random question, but Reid noticed her hand faintly trembling as she traced patterns on the blanket.

"Some men do. Just wondering." She said offhandedly.

"No, God, please no. I don't like little girls. Not like that."

Moni nodded, and looked at him with serious eyes, "then you like men."

Reid stared, appalled at Moni. At the same time he quickly shook his head.

"No, I don't like men, I like women. I still don't understand why you are asking me this."

He suddenly saw her impassive face turn into a mask of despair. She nodded, her eyes filling with tears that threatened to spill down her face.

"Sorry, I'm really sorry, I gotta leave." She said, her voice cracking at every other word.

She threw the blanket to the side and started looking for her shirt and track pants on the floor, under Reid's still confused gaze.

"I'm sorry, really sorry." She puts the track pants on, sniffling and trying not to cry.

"Did I say something wrong?"

"No, you said nothing wrong. There's nothing wrong with you. You are perfect. The problem is with me." She said nervously. Reid continued to stare at her, confused. She held her head in her hands, as if she had a headache.

"If it was something I said..."

"Stupid, stupid Moni," she muttered while she pulled on her top in a very irritated move, almost tearing the cloth apart.

"Did I offend you in any way? I'm sorry." He apologized. He took a step towards her but stopped when she took a step back in retreat. She looked up at him with hurt filled eyes, finally losing her battle with her unshed tears. The hot tears trailed down her face as sorrow overtook her.

"What's wrong with me?" she whispered, taking a step back towards Reid. She searched his eyes for an answer, "Why am I so unlovable?"

Reid blinked at the question, not knowing where it came from. He shook his head, "There is nothing wrong with you, Monica."

"Moni, please."

"Moni, there's nothing wrong with you."

"Then why do I only attract crazy people? Why are only the psychopaths, sociopaths, and pedophiles attracted to me? Why don't I ever attract someone…" her voice cracked, and she lowered her chin to her chest. Reid's heart constricted at the amount of pain spilling from her voice and clearly showing on her face.

"Someone like me?" he completed with a soft voice. She simply nodded.

She looked up at him with tears spilling from the corner of her eyes, leaving silver tracks over her pale skin.

"Someone who doesn't feel the incessant need to cause pain and humiliation unto others in order to get off, " she elaborated, bitterness spilling at every word.

She took another step towards him, speaking in an agitated voice; her hands moved in the air nervously, "You like women, you're not attracted to little girls and you don't seem to be the type that likes slapping people silly while … ahh... you are... uhm... busy… and despite your apparent enthusiasm to the idea," she vaguely pointed to his fading erection, " you… you still are not attracted to me. So the problem is in me. It must be me. I'm the one who is messed up."

"No," Reid took another step, placing her hands in his own. She fought him, struggling against his grasp, but he tightened his hold, refusing to let her go. "Listen to me, there's nothing wrong with you."

She looked up at him, and gave him a heartbroken disagreement. "It must be, Reid. I just can't get it right."

"Why did you come to me?"

She shrugged, "Isn't it obvious?"

"No, I know you wanted to have sex, but that's not what I was asking. Why _me_? Why did you pick me?"

She stared at him with huge innocent eyes, as he continued in a very serious tone, "Out of the whole team, there are several other men who are much more masculine or maybe even more attractive than me, but you still chose me. I'm not an alpha male, Moni; yet still, you chose me. Why?"

She bit her lip, silently refusing to answer his question. Reid squeezed her hand, in a show of support. His other hand lifted her chin up, asking her for her answer.

Their eyes locked and held for a long moment. Reid could feel her taking in ragged breaths under his grasp. He gently wiped away a tear hanging from her cheek, watching the fluid transfer from her flushed cheek to his thumb.

"They scare me," she whispered softly. "I just don't want to…" she paused, as a new wave of tears came spilling down her cheek.

He looks into her eyes, and nodded, silently encouraging her to answer.

"I don't want to hurt." She admitted. He frowned, in puzzlement, at her answer so she continued, her voice now small and quivering, "At least once, I would like to know how it is when it doesn't hurt. I know it's not supposed to hurt, but it does… I just don't wanna hurt any more. And I thought you - even if you got mad at me - you wouldn't, you know, _hurt_ me."

Reid stared at her, disturbed by what she had just revealed about herself. He thought back on her statement about the people who were previously attracted to her, feeling a cold chill run through his body.

"Are you saying that …" she nodded. He blinked, recalling sexual assault cases he had worked in the past and not wanting to picture Moni in any of the scenarios, "people hurt you before, and it was always painful to have sexual intercourse as they were always…"

"Pedophiles or perverts who believed that I wanted to feel pain," she muttered, "but I didn't. I've never did."

"Why didn't you have them reported to the police?"

"To whom, Reid? I'm a thief. Nobody would listen to me. Even if they did, nobody would believe me. It would be my word against pillars of morality in our society. Who do you think they would believe?"

She freed her hand from his grasp and folded her arms around herself, in a clear protective action that broke Reid's heart. He felt useless. He remembered Rossi telling him that they couldn't save everyone. For every sexual sadist they put away there were a hundred more roaming the streets. But Reid couldn't help but feel like he had somehow failed Moni. Someone should have protected her.

"I don't know what to say." he said, feeling worst when he saw her shoulders slump forward in defeat.

"Then don't say anything. You don't have to like me. I'm not asking to be your future wife or the mother of your unborn children," she sighed ,"I just thought that if you wanted me just a little bit it would be enough to prove to me that I'm wrong, that I am somehow able to be attractive to a nice normal guy. But it's okay, forget it, never mind. I'm sorry to disturb you and your sleep."

She gazed at him again with a dejected expression then turned back towards the open window to leave.

"Wait. Wait. Where are you going?"

"Back to my room."

"Wait." She turned back to him. "These feelings of inadequacy you have are a direct result of the abuse you have received, but I can guarantee you that there is absolutely nothing wrong with you. You are very attractive in your own way. They were wrong, and you were just a victim of unspeakable crimes that should never have been committed towards anyone. Especially towards someone so young like yourself."

She smiled faintly at him, "you don't have to profile me, Reid. I know how messed up I am. I'm not extraordinarily intelligent or bright, or even emotionally healthy. I'm very messed up. It's just… ah… I just wanted to know."

"Know what?" his distress was getting the better of him, and he couldn't seem to put the right words together to say to her.

"How it is to have someone trying to make you feel good, at least once. I just wanted to know how it is when it doesn't hurt."

His face fell as he looked at the woman who had just opened up her heart to him, exposing a whole world of hurt that he hadn't even dreamed could exist under her frivolous personality. She hid it well, under layer after layer, until she could not identify herself from the mask which she used to face the world everyday.

"I would never hurt a woman," he whispered. She smiled, knowing that his words were the truth.

"I know. That's why I chose you." She turned around and walked in quick steps towards the window.

"Wait," he called out, making her freeze just shy of the window pane. He ran nervous hands through his messy hair, and stared at her back, which was still to him.

"This is so wrong."

She turned to see him biting his lower lip, nervously.

"I could get fired over this."

She slowly took a step back towards him.

"Only if they find out." she rationalized.

"I'm neither very good or…" he frowned before continuing, "experienced as I might seem to be."

She shook her head fiercely, "I'm not looking for experience, Reid. I just don't want to be hurt."

He sighed and came to stand in front of her. She stretched her hand out to softly touch his naked chest before looking up into his youthful face. Her pleading eyes bore into his. In them, he could see the residual sadness mixing with her fear from past experiences. They spoke her request before the words left her lips.

"That's all I ask from you. Please, don't hurt me."

* * *

a/n: That's my boy! Now, let's jump to the interesting part!


	5. Collide

**Chapter 5: Collide**

**_Collide_**

_The dawn is breaking__  
__A light shining through__  
__You're barely waking__  
__And I'm tangled up in you__  
__Yeah_

_I'm open, you're closed_  
_Where I follow, you'll go_  
_I worry I won't see your face_  
_Light up again_

_Even the best fall down sometimes_  
_Even the wrong words seem to rhyme_  
_Out of the doubt that fills my mind_  
_I somehow find_  
_You and I collide_

_HOWIE DAY – COLLIDE_

Moni opened her eyes, instantly taking in the unfamiliar surroundings. The feel of a masculine hand cradling one of her breasts and a very hairy leg nestled between her own made her entire body stiffen on instinct. Just then, memories of the previous night came crashing down on her.

First the pain and shame and her daring escape to the window ledge, finding the room where the object of her lust and desires slept peacefully, attacking him with wet kisses until he finally crumbled to their desires and ravished her.

She stretched like a satisfied cat then, and turned in Reid's - _oops… Spencer, his name is Spencer, silly_ – arms to look at his serene, sleeping face. He slept with his mouth open, the air making a soft wheezing sound whenever he breathed out. His long lashes were almost like a girl's, and he was extremely skinny, but he had more than satisfied her curiosity the previous night.

She propped her head up on her hand and studied his face, trying to memorize his features. He was not a prime rib steak like the dark skinned agent- stacked with muscles and a killer smile- but he was adorable in his own way. Moni was brought up short by the new feeling that overcame her as she ran her index finger lightly across his brow: a fierce protective instinct that she hadn't felt for anyone until… well…now.

There was a burning feeling in her chest that had been building from the moment she had first kissed him last night. Even now, she could feel it intensifying with each passing second. _Was this what people insisted on calling love?_ She wondered. _This desperate desire to make someone happy and keep them safe?_

Moni sighed as she looked over at the small alarm clock on the bedside table. Time to leave.

She leaned over the agent, placing a light kiss on his lips, without waking him up from his slumber.

"I could have loved you, Spencer. Now, we'll never know." She left his bed quietly. Looking back, she saw him move in his sleep, hugging the pillow she had just vacated and burying his face in it.

She turned to find her clothes in the spots they had landed as they'd desperately attacked each other the previous night. She stretched her sore limbs before pulling on her track pants. It was a good sore, one she took pleasure in feeling.

Once completely clothed, she found a small piece of paper and wrote a note. She folded it and left it on the bedside table.

Staring at his sleeping form again for a full minute, she sighed and went to the window ledge to leave.

CM CM CM CM

The insistent ringing brought Reid from his dream involving silky, black onyx strands fanning across his pillow. His brain- foggy from sleep- couldn't figure out where the annoying sound was coming from.

He stretched his hand blindly towards the sound, coming in contact with his phone and answering it in a voice thick with sleep.

"Reid speaking."

"What's up, man? We're waiting for you to go to the station."

"What time is it?" he looked at the alarm clock and cursed loudly, eliciting a chuckle from Morgan, "sorry, I overslept. I'll be downstairs in fifteen minutes."

"Make it in ten, kid."

They disconnected, and Reid closed his phone before falling on his pillows again. He cursed himself a thousand times over and in several different languages before looking around. There was no sign of the thief who had shared the night with him.

He looked at the alarm clock again, and saw as small note with his name written in a flourish. Stretching his hand out, he grabbed it. For a moment he felt apprehension about what he might find inside, but he eventually took the plunge and opened the small note.

_Dear Spencer,_

_Thanks for the amazing night you gave me; it was truly a gift. The memory will forever be burned into my brain, and your fingerprints will be ghost whispers on my skin._

_I could never repay you or explain what your act of kindness meant to me. _

_Yours forever,_

_Moni._

He sighed, and rubbed his face with his hands, all the time staring at the few words she had left behind. She had gone as silently as she came, only the fading scent of her perfume remained. He breathed in her lingering aroma, but was instantly mad at himself for doing so. This shouldn't have happened.

He was an FBI agent for Christ's sake. He stood up and started searching for his underwear but paused when he glanced at the bed and saw faint traces of blood mixed with the seminal fluid, drying on the bed sheets. He knew for a fact she wasn't a virgin, and he had been very careful when they were together- stopping whenever she showed the smallest hint of discomfort. So there was no reason for there to be blood on the sheets.

His phone started ringing again, and he rushed to it, "yes, yes, I'm on my way."

He spoke with Morgan for another minute before disconnecting and rushing to the bathroom to start a new day, and to come face to face with the woman he had spent a wild night with.

CM CM CM CM CM

He arrived at the breakfast room to find the whole team already up and ready to go to the precinct.

"I'm sorry guys, I overslept." He hurried to the coffee machine, pouring a huge quantity of the black liquid in his cup.

"Grab whatever you want, you can eat at the precinct," Hotch said, without lifting his eyes from the paper in his hand.

Rossi studied Reid when he came to stand behind Morgan's chair, seeing him immediately glance around the table, as if looking for someone.

"Where is Moni?" Reid asked.

His colleagues look at him curiously, and- realizing his slip- Reid took a sip of his coffee to hide his blush, "Ah… I mean, Monica." he finished in his most casual tone.

"Prentiss went with an officer to release her security detail, she hasn't come down yet," Rossi said, watching the young agent like a hawk.

Reid nodded and stared into his coffee, in deep thought. Morgan looks up at him.

"What's up, kid?" he asked, noticing Reid was deeply unsettled by something.

Reid met Morgan's concerned gaze, and realized he wasn't going to be able to sort this out on his own.

"Can we talk for a moment? Please?"

"Sure, what's up?" Reid peered up at their other teammates, seeing all their eyes on him.

"Ah, in private, please." Morgan glanced at Hotch, who watched their resident genius fidget as if he had been asked to give an oral presentation in front of a large conference. Hotch nodded in acquiescence to Morgan, keeping his impassive eyes on Reid.

"Sure." Morgan guided Reid to another table, closer to the buffet and wasted no time before diving right into the conversation. "Spill it, Reid. What got your insides in a twist?"

Reid stalled, his coffee mug held so tight in his hands that Morgan could see his knuckles turning white. Reid glanced at his teammate, unsure of how much he should reveal.

"Kid, I can't help you if you don't talk to me."

"I slept with her." There it goes, he thought.

Morgan stared at him for a moment, first imagining that it was a joke, but Reid was not known for his jokes and he seemed very ill at ease when revealing the information. "What?"

Reid nodded firmly, "I … ahhh… engaged into sexual intercourse with our witness."

Morgan was silent for a moment, until he abruptly grabbed Reid's arm and turned him so that both their backs were to the table where the other profilers sat.

"Are you out of your mind?"

"It wasn't intentional, and sleeping with her is actually a very inaccurate description for the evening, as very little sleeping was involved."

Morgan gave him an incredulous glare, but Reid was still staring into his coffee as if the answer to the ultimate question was somewhere in there, so he didn't see the look of dismay.

"Do you have any idea what Hotch can do to you if he finds out?"

"I know, but you see... she was there."

"What do you mean?"

"She was there when I woke up in the middle of the night...then she started taking her clothes off and then she _kissed_ me…" he gulped and his face became flushed, and Morgan could see Reid's eyes becoming glazed with the memory, "we talked a little...and then we kissed again and she-"

"You just did what came naturally." he presumed.

Reid affirmed his statement, nodding adamantly with his brows raised.

"How did she get past security detail? I thought they stayed outside her door the whole night."

"She didn't come by the door. I believe she entered through the window."

"The window? But you're staying on the 20th floor."

Reid scratched his neck, feeling some bite marks under his scarf that he assumed had been put there sometime during the night.

"That didn't seem to faze her at all."

Prentiss arrived while they were still having their private conversation. They watched her hurry towards the team and say something to Hotch. There was some kind of commotion at the table as the agents all stood up to leave. JJ came over to Morgan and Reid, her worried face putting them on alert.

"Come on, we have a problem." she said.

CM CM CM CM

The BAU team entered Monica hotel room, where two chagrined officers were being lectured by their supervisor and another officer sat near the window, holding a hand towel to his head.

The room itself was in complete disarray; it looked as if a battle had been fought inside it.

"What happened here?" Hotch asked, looking over at Prentiss who is glaring at the wounded officer.

"Apparently, she is gone, and she took the pen drive."

"Any chance she could have been taken by our killer?"

Reid kept one ear to his colleagues' conversation as he began looking around the destroyed room. The more he saw of it, the more unnerved he became. He approached the unmade bed, noticing that it was twisted- not as if someone had slept in it, but as if someone had fought in it. One corner of the mattress that sat lower than the other three because it was on the floor beneath the broken bed frame. His eyes peeled over the broken lamp on the floor next to the table it once sat on by the bed. The table was disheveled, looking to have been shoved out of place at some point. Reid felt a huge ball of dread starting to form in his chest. His quick mind was already deducing what may have happened in the room.

"That bitch attacked me, sir, yes she did. Knocked me out cold," the officer growled from across the room, looking at the agents with fury in his eyes.

"You were the only one here with her?" Morgan asked, inspecting the struggle signs on the bed.

"Yes, I stayed inside the room and officers Johnson and Todd stayed outside."

"Why didn't they assign a female officer to her?" Prentiss inquired while carefully touching a small paper with some kind of drawing on it with her gloved hands.

Reid didn't care to hear his response, as he was now looking over the less than obvious indications around the room. He stared at the second twin bed, which looked barely slept in, and then at the other one. The shallow scratch marks on the bed columns caught his trained eye and he squinted to get a better look. He moved the blankets aside to look at the tousled bedsheets and in a flash the feeling of dread in his chest mounted into full blown fury.

"What the hell did you do to her?" he shouted at the officer, who looks at him as if he had lost his mind.

"Reid!" Hotch shouted in a tone meant to remind him of where he was, but the warning went unheard by the incensed agent. Reid stalked towards the officer, his mind focused on nothing but getting back at the man who had hurt Moni. Morgan rushed to block his path. He grabbed Reid's shoulder, surprised to find them tensed as if ready to jump at the officer at any moment.

"What's this, man? Get a hold of yourself!"

"But Morgan!" Reid began shaking so badly that Morgan thought he might have a seizure. "Morgan, he raped her!"

All the officers and BAU profilers in the room went silent and gaped at Reid, who could barely hold down his tears after having to speak the words out loud.

"How could you?" he shouted, his voice filled with hurt.

"Listen, kid, think again before you make such accusations! I'll have your badge," the officer asserted, taking down the towel from his forehead and staring at the young profiler.

"What? Do you like hitting girls? Why don't you hit someone your own size?" Reid shouted in challenge.

Morgan continued holding him by his shoulders, but he could feel the anger boiling in his own chest.

Rossi calmly approached the bed, and looked at what Reid had revealed when he pulled back the blankets. He grimaced.

Hotch glared at Reid, "Calm down, these are serious accusations to throw at someone without proof."

"Unfortunately the accusations are correct," Rossi said. Hotch turned to him in shocked. Rossi waved for the team leader to come and look at the bed.

Instructing Morgan not to let Reid go, Hotch went over and stood by Rossi, who looked sadly at the bedsheets no longer covered by the blanket. Hotch sighed tiredly at the sight of the pools of dried seminal fluid mixed with blood- lots of blood- on the sheets.

"Whatever happened here," Rossi said softly, "it wasn't consensual."

Hotch glared at the officer, who didn't even have the decency to look ashamed at his actions.

"What exactly were you trying to prove here?"

The officer shrugged, unconcerned with the furious gaze Hotch shot his way.

"That bitch had it coming, strutting around here in her towel as if I was made of stone. I'm a man, you know?" he reasoned.

Prentiss shook her head at the stupidity of the officer. "Did it ever occur to you that she came to us for protection? That there is a killer out there who is out to get her, who has killed at least five people already? And instead of protecting her, you usurped your power over her and violated her?"

"She's a thief, she is probably used to others manhandling her."

Hotch looked expectantly at the supervisor, who approached them with a look of disgust, directed at the rapist, "apparently the two bozos at the door heard the commotion, and were ordered to keep watch until he was finished with her."

Hotch spotted Reid from the corner of his eye, looking everywhere except at the bloodied bed. His composure was shot, only his emotions existed now, pulling him back and forth between anger and sadness.

"I'm sorry, I can't stay in here anymore." Reid said

He left the room as fast as his feet would carry him, and Hotch signaled for Morgan to follow him. He finally caught up with Reid down the corridor.

"Hey, kid. Talk to me."

"How could I have been so blind?" Reid stared at Morgan with desolate eyes, brimming with tears, "the things she said, the way she reacted whenever… whenever I touched her. The whole night was a desperate cry for help, and I didn't hear it. I didn't get it."

"Don't beat yourself up about it. You had no way of knowing it. She could have told you what happened."

Reid shook his head in objection, "No, she couldn't. Those were her exact words. She couldn't tell me or others what terrible things had happened to her because nobody would listen. Nobody would care. She was in pain and I didn't see it."

"Wait a second, she said that she had been raped before?"

Reid nodded, staring down at his hands, "She begged me, Morgan."

"What did she beg you for, Reid?"

Reid looked up and answered in a quivering voice, "She begged me to teach her how it is when it doesn't hurt."


	6. Scientific definitions

**_Chapter 6: Scientific definitions_**

The agents filed into the small conference room, and took their seats. Reid sat at the end of the conference table, with Morgan to his left side and Rossi and Hotch to his right.

Reid's discomfort with the situation showed in his rigid posture and that he kept stealing glances of Hotch, who- since he found out about his profiler's 'indiscretion'- had shut down any emotion from his face and had ordered him to keep quiet until they could talk.

The sexual offender and the two officers who did nothing to stop the attack were given administrative leave until the matter was fully investigated.

Meanwhile, Prentiss and JJ were trying to salvage the BAU's rapport in the precinct filled with cops who were all mad at them for arresting a fellow officer for what they considered a minor offense. After all, the girl was just a thief.

Reid sat nervously in his chair, his leg bouncing nonstop. Morgan stretched his hand over to touched Reid's leg, stopping his nervous tic.

"Relax, Kid. We're not here to crucify you, but we need your help to find her. You were the last one to see her, so we will have to pick your brain for a while."

Reid nodded and looked at Hotch, who still had his serious mask on.

"Hotch, I'm sorry—"

"Apologies won't help us now, Reid. What we need is information on how to find her before our Unsub does."

Reid cast his head down in shame. Hotch, observing the great affect the ordeal was having on him, spoke his next words in a very serious tone, but also showed his concern over his young comrade with each word, "I'm not going to tell you that what you did was wrong, because you already know that. But we need to go through every single thing she said to you, to see if she left any clue as to where she might have gone. We need to find her before this psychopath does, otherwise she will soon be another picture we will have to put up on our murder board. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

Reid matched Hotch's serious visage with his own determined one. "Yes, I do."

"Good. Now tell us how it started."

Reid rubbed his sweaty palm on his trouser leg, peeking at Rossi and Morgan, who were both waiting patiently for him to start.

"I woke up and she was there."

"Was she naked?" Hotch questioned.

"No. Not yet."

"Did she say anything?"

"No, she started taking her clothes off, very slowly," he bit down on his lip hard, trying to distract his body, as it instantly recalled images of her naked form.

"What happened then?"

Reid folded his arms protectively, not wanting to further violate Moni by disclosing too much about last night. It wasn't fair to her. He shrugged, hoping the minimum would be enough but knowing it wouldn't be, "She kissed me."

Rossi looked down at his notes, before asking what had been nagging him for a while, "Was she aggressive?"

"No," Reid said emphatically, "Not at all. She was almost insecure. When I asked her what she was doing she told me she was there to seduce me, but still her kisses were very timid. Sealed lips and all."

"What happened after that?"

"I left the bed, told her that we shouldn't do this."

"How did she take it? You were denying her something she wanted very much. Was she aggressive then?" Derek asked.

"No, she started asking me questions."

"What kind of questions."

"Strange ones."

"Like what?"

Reid blew out an exasperated breath before unfolding his arms to drop his head in his hands, "First she asked me if I was a pedophile."

"What?" Rossi looked up from his notes and exchanged a worried glance with Hotch.

"Yeah, that was my exact reaction. I don't think I've ever done anything to give her that idea. I mean, we had barely exchanged words at the station and she was already questioning if I was a monster or not."

"What was your answer?" Derek asked.

"I told her no. That I liked women. Then she asked me if I was a homosexual."

Hotch was starting to see just how Moni behavior had confused Reid. It must have been a veritable rollercoaster- even for a genius- trying to follow her line of thinking.

"And you told her…"

"That I wasn't. I'm not into guys. I told her that I liked women. And that's when she started crying."

"Why? You had just told her something that should have made her happy. Why would she start crying?" Rossi thought aloud as he continued scribbling in his notebook.

"She said that there must be some kind of problem with her, because she only attracted psychopaths, sociopaths, and pedophiles. She mentioned that the only people she had ever… ahhh" he breathed deeply, before continuing, his voice lower than before "that she had ever engaged in intercourse with were perverts- sexual sadists- who believed that she was into feeling pain."

"She told you this?" Hotch glanced at Morgan, who had a very deep frown creasing in his forehead.

"Yes. She said that I was a nice guy; that she believed that I would be different. That I wouldn't hurt her on purpose. That's when she started crying really hard, when I told her that I wouldn't touch her."

"She has a very poor self image," Hotch accessed, Reid nodded his agreement before picking up where he left off.

"I told her that there was nothing wrong with her. She was very pretty and attractive in her own way and that the people who hurt her were wrong. That's when she asked if she was attractive, then why wasn't _I_ attracted to her?"

"What happened after that?"

Reid sighed deeply, feeling at the end of his rope, "'She was crying, Hotch, and begging me to teach her how it is to have sex when the person is not out to hurt her. What did you expect me to do?"

"Did you?" Rossi asked with a forming smile.

"What?"

"Teach her how it is when it doesn't hurt."

"Yes, I did."

Rossi chuckled before getting back to business.

"Okay. Did you climax?"

"Yes, I did." Reid answered, despite his infinite embarrassment over having to share that fact.

"Did she climax?" Hotch asked. He wasn't prepared for Reid's forward answer.

"Of course! Several times."

It was Morgan's turn to grin now, "Several times?"

Reid looked up from his hands to see Morgan looking at him with a curious and slightly humored expression. He thought back on what he had just said and realized it sounded almost like he was bragging.

"Oh, well, she wanted to feel good. And I tried to… ahh… make sure that she did." He glanced at Hotch, who also had a small smirk on his face.

"We don't have to know that. What happened after you agreed to… uhm…to teach her?"

"She insisted to… to, ahh… show off her abilities." He blushed a new shade of red, praying he wouldn't have to elaborate.

"Reid?" Reid looked at Hotch, who noticed the faint trace of sweat gathering on the genius' forehead. "What did she do?"

"She… performed fellatio on me." He murmured, blushing even deeper. Morgan was actually astonished there were so many different tones of red Reid could blush.

"She gave you a blow job?" He simplified.

"The scientific term is _fellatio_."

* * *

a/n: Reid is showing a side of his that none of his colleagues had ever seen before.


	7. She makes him sing

**_Chapter 7: She makes him sing_**

**_Some hours earlier in Reid's room_**

The previous awkwardness was thrown out of the window when Reid decided to go along with her request. They attacked each other, kissing with a growing fervor that made him dizzy. Their clothes were thrown to the floor in a few seconds and in less time both of them were writhing against each other on the bed.

"Maybe we should set up some rules about… ahh yess… like that… ohhh." Reid's thoughts blurred with the feel of her tongue circling beneath his ear.

He grasped her face in between his big hands, bringing her up for another kiss. Their tongues dueled in her mouth, hers enticing moans driving him further as they mixed with her sweet flavor in his mouth. He flipped her over on the bed. Hovering over her, he ran his hands along the long path of her curves.

"What type of rules?" She asked as she licked his chin.

She alternated between kisses and light suckling, working her way up the side of his neck. He closed his eyes and moaned when she reached the base of his jaw. Her fingernails lightly scratching his back caused his entire body to shiver and to press closer to her, molding her body to his.

"We should… ahhh" he tried again.

"I have an idea."

She flipped him over and straddled his stomach, her smiling face suspended above his. She intertwined her fingers with his, pressing his hands down on the sides of his head.

"What about if we do the following: I make you feel good, you make me feel good. I kiss you, you kiss me. I lick you and you lick me. What do you think of those rules?"

He had to smile at her childish enthusiasm, until his eyes lowered to her breasts, which were hanging just a few inches from his face. She caught the direction his glance was heading, and smiled even brighter.

"Do you like what you see, Dr. Reid?"

"Spencer."

"Hmm?"

"Considering the circumstances, you may call me by my given name. It's Spencer." He said distractedly, as he hadn't looked away from her breast the whole time.

"Okay. Spencer."

She moved his hand to her breasts. He breathed deeply, listening to her moan as he massaged her perky flesh.

"You like that?" he asked looking up so he could see the pleasure on her face. Her head was thrown back, her back arched in the most magnificent way. He reached his other hand up to caress he exposed neck and felt her moan vibrate against his hand.

"Ohhh, yes!"

She leaned back down to kiss his chest, slowly moving down his body.

"What are you doing?"he asked.

Her answer was a light giggle. She ran her fingers over stomach, her hand steadily moving lower until it reached its objective.

"Woah… ah… careful with that. You don-ahhhh."

She giggled and tightened her grip. He closed his eyes and threw his head back into the pillows, breathing sharply.

"That's, ahh, exquisite. Can you…"

Her head moved even lower. He could feel her warm breath on his abdomen; his stomach muscles instinctively tightened.

"What are you…"

She suddenly replaced her hand with her mouth, and he almost jumped from the bed with surprise.

"What…ahh, my God"

Not knowing what to do with his hands, he sank his fingers like claws into the bedsheets. He closed his eyes, reveling in the intense pleasure of her ministrations. He moaned and thrashed around, his mind clouding with each pass she made over him. He placed his hand on her cheek, trying in a weak attempt to dislodge her from him but she simply batted his hands away and giggled.

"Ohhh, my God…"

Her giggle sent vibrations through him, making him throw his head back again on the pillow. His neck muscles tightened as his body strained forward off the bed.

"Oh, my God, I'm…Ahh, Moni!"

"Oh, my God..I'm..OH, MY GOD!" He shouted when his ecstasy consumed him.

She licked him until she felt his shakes subside, and then kissed the tip of his shrinking member before moving up on his body and supporting her head on his heaving chest. She purred, satisfied as she listened to his heart hammering under her ear.

He ran his trembling hands up and down on her back, still astonished at what she had done. Silence settled comfortably around them.

Reid fingers lazily massaged Moni's temple as she in turn closed her eyes, basking in the tenderness and care he was showing towards her. His calm voice finally broke the silence.

"You shouldn't… have done that."

She licked his sweaty chest, her tongue tracing small circles around his nipple, and making him moan again.

"It's okay, I wanted to. It was different."

He breathed deeply, still feeling the tremors of his orgasm running through his limbs. He ran his hand over her back and up to her neck, tangling it in her long curls. He was enchanted with the softness against his fingers.

"How different?"

She sighed deeply and stretched against him.

"It's different to do it when you want to from when you're forced to."

Reid opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling, frowning at what she had just revealed.

"Are you telling me you were forced to... Who forced you?"

She rubbed her cheek against his naked chest, surprised at the softness of his skin. Then she inhaled his wonderful scent, his sweat mixing with his natural essence to form an intoxicating aroma that made her head spin.

"It doesn't matter" she spoke from beneath his chin, "You were different. I did it because I wanted to. Feeling you so vulnerable and excited for me made me hot as well, and I didn't even have to touch myself to feel good."

Reid wiggled from underneath her, flipping her softly on the bed, so he could look into her face.

"Of course it matters. If someone forced you to do something you didn't want to, they should be punished."

"Nobody cares, Reid."

"Spencer."

"Spencer, it doesn't matter anymore. They only hit you until you cry, anyway. After a while, you simply give them what they want and avoid further injury." She blinked rapidly to keep herself from crying, and gave him a thin smile of reassurance.

"It's still wrong, Moni. You shouldn't have to submit yourself to this kind of abuse." he said with a conviction in his voice that she had never heard from anyone before, at least not if they were talking about her right to be treated like a human being.

She stared at him in fascination, as if he was something that she has never seen; considering their state of undress, that was saying a lot. He looked away, embarrassed and no longer able to take her scrutinizing eyes.

"You really care, don't you?" she sounded in awe of the concept.

"Of course I do. It's a crime, Moni. I'm just the type of guy that cares if someone hurts another person and goes unpunished."

"Most people wouldn't give damn about what happens to a thief. It's kind of an understatement to say that bad things happen in this life."

"Thief or not, you're still a human being. And I'm not most people." He said in a soft voice, looking down at her face.

She smiled brightly at him, and lifted her hand to run her fingers over his cheek. She traced his eyebrows with her light touch, then his nose and his lips, while he stared down at her. He soon felt his arousal reawakening, despite his previous orgasm. He turned his face so her palm could touch his cheek, and kissed her finger when she ran her thumb along his lower lip.

"Spencer?"

"Yeah?"

"Would you make love to me now?"

CM CM CM CM

"Reid?"

"Reid?"

"Hey Kid."

"What?" Reid looked up from the table and saw Morgan, Hotch, and Rossi looking at him, all with condescending humor written on their faces.

"What happened?"

"You zoned out on us for a minute there," Rossi said with a knowing smile.

"Uh."

"Good memory?" Morgan asked, getting his answer when Reid's face paled before turning as red as a beetroot. "Don't bother to answer that."

"She said something else." Reid said, the memory still fresh in his head.

"What did she say?"

"She said that it was different to… perform when you want to from when you are forced to."

Hotch turned to Rossi, "Is there any conclusive evidence of what happened in that hotel room while she was under custody?"

"Prentiss is interrogating that creep as we speak, but he won't budge. He believes it was in his right to abuse her."

"CSI's collecting evidence, but we don't have her DNA sample to compare with the sheets in order to prove that that person who was raped in that room was her," Morgan explained.

"Yes, we do," Reid said,with a frown of concentration. He immediately had all their full attention. "There were traces of blood, her blood, on my bedsheets this morning. At first I was worried that - despite my care to prepare her - she still bled because of me, but she … she probably was still bleeding from her previous assault when she came to lay with me."

"Did she at any time show her discomfort with you?"

"All the time." Reid could feel the panic building in his gut as he thought over what had transpired the night before. "Hotch, I messed up. Badly. I knew she was in pain, she…" He paused and took a deep breath, trying to control his emotions, "She grimaced when I…we… we had to stop several times because she was in pain and I even offered to pull out but she said that she would hurt me if I did. Why would she insist to do it if she had just been violated?"

Rossi tapped his pen on the table, regarding Reid's frightened face as he thought over the situation.

"Despite her discomfort, she climaxed?"

"Yes. I did my best to ensure that."

Rossi squinted his eyes in speculation, and leaned back in his chair. Hotch and Morgan waited for him to let them in on his theory.

"Sensory overwrite." he said eventually.

"What does that mean?"

"You see," Rossi leaned back towards the table, readying to explain to Reid, "she wanted to erase the pain and shame she felt at the hands of her rapist with something else, so she insisted to share a moment with you because she knew you would be different. You proved her right, and the new sensorial information kind of erased, momentarily, the previous one."

Reid stared at Rossi for long moment. He, at some point, had started moving his leg in the nervous tic again, "Is that supposed to make me feel better?"

"You're looking at it from the wrong angle. You didn't have all the information to make an educated choice, and you did what you had to do at that time."

"He should have come to us," Hotch said in a stern voice, bringing all eyes at the table to him. He was obviously still furious at the disobedience of his youngest team member.

"Come on, Hotch, think. He woke up with a beautiful woman begging him to make love to her. She was crying, man. What would you have done?" Morgan spoke on Reid's behalf.

Hotch seemed unmoved, so Morgan turned to Reid, trying to console his young friend who looked to be heartbroken with what had transpired.

"Kid, talk to me. As a man, not as a profiler, how would you describe it?"

He shook his head trying to clear away the events of the day, and focus only on the previous night. The image of a smiling face framed with black curls flashed in his head at that moment. Thinking back, he couldn't believe he hadn't seen just how beautiful she really was. His eidetic memory provided an accurate picture of her in his mind, and in it she was nothing short of astonishing.

"It was…" he paused, looking for the appropriate words, "it was… the most intense sexual experience I've ever had."

* * *

a/n: Come guys, reviews please? What do you think so far? Will they find her in time? Or will the killer find her first? What does Moni think of Reid after their love night?


	8. He makes her burst into song

**_Chapter 8: He makes her burst into song_**

Moni, after escaping from the hotel, wandered through the city for some hours, trying to ensure that there was no one on her tail.

After she was sure that she was not being followed, she ducked into a small, dilapidated electronic warehouse downtown. She walked with certain steps between the cluttered shelves, down the aisles until she reached the back of the warehouse. An old door, hidden by several old computer parts piled up one after the other, sat against the back wall. She moved the old monitors out of the way, revealing the small escape hatch

She smiled, and leaned down so that she could pass her small frame through the open hatch. She slid the door open before crawling in on her hands and knees. Shuffling through the tube for some meters, she soon reached another hatch. A small electronic palm reader was to the left of the door, completely invisible in the dark shaft along with everything else.

Moni, however, having taken this path numerous times, had no problem finding the scanner and placing her palm to it. It beeped, alerting acceptance, and the hatch hissed open. Her hands landed on the polished floor of the pristine and organized room, filled with top of the line electronics. There was no one about, but the plasma screens of the computers displayed some kind of program, indicating that the person who worked there would be coming back soon.

She walked towards the black leather desk chair and dropped heavily on it. The seat groaned under her weight, and she immediately started turning it around and around, like a little girl in an adult's chair.

She eventually got dizzy. Coming to a stop, Moni leaned back in the chair, staring at the ceiling with a silly smile on her face qne one hand resting over her heart.

She hummed to herself, closing her eyes for a moment as the lyrics started to form behind her eyes. She giggled as the word to song burst from her lips.

_Something has changed within me  
Something is not the same  
I'm through with playing by the rules  
Of someone else's game _

She hopped up and continued singing to the empty room. She strolled across the the floor, running her hand over the polished top of the computer desk. Absently picking up a pencil, she started doodling on a stray piece of paper. She wasn't surprised to see the outlines of a genius profiler start to emerge in her drawing. Holding the picture at arms length she gave the next verse.

_Too late for second-guessing  
Too late to go back to sleep  
It's time to trust my instincts  
Close my eyes: and leap!_

She twirled to the center of the room. With the image pressed tightly to her chest, she closed her eyes and sang with her soul.

_It's time to try  
Defying gravity  
I think I'll try  
Defying gravity  
Kiss me goodbye  
I am defying gravity  
And you won't bring me down! _

She bounded up onto the worktable, overstepping the keyboards as she made her way back to the front of the room.

_I'm through accepting limits  
''cause someone says they're so  
Some things I cannot change  
But till I try, I'll never know!  
Too long I've been afraid of  
Losing love I guess I've lost_

She paused- front and center on the worktable- and in her loudest and strongest voice, opened her arms and sang to the ceiling.

_Well, if that's love  
It comes at much too high a cost!  
_  
_I'd sooner buy  
Defying gravity  
Kiss me goodbye  
I'm defying gravity  
I think I'll try  
Defying gravity  
And you wont bring me down!  
Bring me down!  
ohh ohhh ohhhh! _

She finished out the song, her spirits soaring, when she suddenly heard clapping from across the room. Her eyes popped open and fear shot through her, but it quickly melted into a smile when she saw who was clapping so enthusiastically at her impromptu performance in the batcave.

"I've never imagined that I would see a thief singing a Glee song in my workroom."

Moni giggled and climbed down from the worktable. She put the paper she was holding in her hand on the table as a salt and pepper haired man with his short beard approached her. He had a computer hard drive in his hand and he had obviously been working in one of his old stations, as his clothes and glasses were filled with dust.

"Pete, I need help."

"Ok, but first you better explain to this old man what made you burst into song."

CM CM CM CM

"Let's see," Peter Drake- aka Dragonseeker in the hacker's underworld- said as he looked at the encrypted layers of security in the pendrive. "So it's because of this little baby here that the thieves in the city are being butchered."

"Yes."

He scratched his beard, the strange numbers and symbols of the encrypted program reflecting on the lenses of his glasses. "It might take a while for me to crack it, they used something very nice to hide the info on this."

"You can't crack it."

"I didn't say that," he said, glancing at her over his glasses, "I said it might take a while."

He started typing a series of commands on the computer, eventually opening several windows filled with text that didn't make any sense to Moni, but meant enough to Peter that his typing became more enthusiastic.

"Okay, now we wait." He said, hitting 'Enter' and turning to Moni.

"Just that?"

"Just that. Now talk to me." She glanced from the screen to his curious expression.

"Talk about what? There is nothing to say."

He smiled and shook his head at her weak attempt at subterfuge, "Moni, Moni, Declercq would spank your sweet ass cheeks if he caught you lying like that."

She blushed and lowered her eyes to the floor, "Declercq is dead."

He nodded, sad at the loss of their common friend.

"I know. But could you please tell me why you were singing?" he leaned down so his face was in her line of vision. "Please?"

He watched her bite her lower lip as she tried her best to avoid his eyes, he found her shyness adorable.

"_Ihadsex_" she whispered, finally meeting his eyes.

"I'm sorry. I couldn't hear you."

"I said, I … had sex," she whispered a little bit louder.

"Oh," Moni blushed even deeper at Peter's raised eyebrows, and folded her arms around herself. "Congratulations I guess."

"Thanks."

He nodded and diverted his eyes to the computer screen for a moment, trying to figure out what to say to his young and naïve friend.

"Was it any good?"

"Good?" She laughed happily and literally melted in her chair, "Pete, it was… breathtaking and extraordinary. My whole world shifted from its axis."

He shook his head at her dramatics, but he had never seen her so taken by someone so the guy must have been good.

"Who is he?"

"He's a Federal Agent."

The peach tea Pete was in the middle of sipping, sprayed from his mouth upon hearing her answer. He then went into a coughing fit, struggling to breath, his eyes watering as he sputtered the last of his tea.

"Are you okay?" Moni hurried over to pat his back.

"You…" he wiped his eyes and mouth with a handkerchief before continuing "you slept with a _cop_?"

"He's not a cop," she sat down again, folding one leg under the other, "he's a profiler for the Behavioral Analysis Unit of the FBI in Quantico," she stated with in very impressed tone.

"Behavioral Analysis… Oh my God, Moni, you slept with a _shrink_?"

"Yep." She said with no shame.

"Oh my God."

"Is it wrong?"

"Oh my God."

"To feel this way for someone who obviously won't ever be able to reciprocate my feelings?"

"Oh sweetheart," Pete looked up, noticing that her mood had quickly shifted from show tunes-giddy to reality time-sad. He sighed and took her hand in his, "I'm sorry."

"I know it won't work, but still...he made me feel so special and beautiful, like no one has ever done before."

"So it was good."

She nodded, smiling dreamily.

"Then it wasn't wrong. God knows you've been hurt enough, despite my and Declercq's efforts to protect you from the world out there." A lone tear escaped from her eye, and he lifted his hand to wipe it away. She looked at him with those soulful caramel eyes, with the same trust and innocence she had when he had first met her, so many years ago in Declercq's living room.

"Why does love hurt so much? Wouldn't it be easier to live not knowing how good it can be and how precious someone can become to you in just a few seconds? A look, a kiss, and then it's gone forever. Thousand of miles apart, never to be seen again. Why does it have to hurt?"

As she spoke her heart's questions, more tears were shed, until her face was the perfect picture of a love torn soul. Peter's heart lurched at her misery over knowing that it was never meant to be.

"Love is something that poets, songwriters and everyone who has lived over the face of the earth has tried to understand and describe, but none were able to do it. It comes and goes like a hurricane, devastating hearts and lives in its wake. Some have the chance of exploring and living in it; others take it for granted and let it escape through their fingers; Then there's people like you and me, who are given only a glimpse of what it can be, only a few hours of passion and lust that fills our souls with joy and song. But it's only one night, and we have to live with just this memory for the rest of our lives."

She studied the hacker with sorrowful eyes, absorbing his words into her very soul.

"I won't ever be with him again, will I?"

Peter shook his head sadly, and squeezed both of her hands in his in a show of support.

"So the love we shared last night must last me forever."


	9. Laughter and duty

**_Chapter 9: Laughter and duty_**

"Would you make love to me now?" she asked in a soft voice, looking into his brown eyes - her own filled with trust and joy.

"Are you sure that's what you want?"

She smiled softly at him, and ran her hand through his hair, tucking some of his bangles behind his ear.

"I've never been more certain of anything in my entire life."

"Okay, I think there are some condoms in the bathroom and…"

"No!"

He frowned down at her hand which was holding his arm in a desperate grip.

"Moni?"

"I'm on pill, and I'm guessing you are clean, so it's ok."

"But still, I think it would be wise to use it."

"I don't like them, Spencer. _They_ used them. It chaffed me, and I bled. I don't like them. Please," she begged, becoming agitated.

He studied her for a moment, seeing how uncomfortable she was with the idea and the bad memories it brought her.

"Please," she implored in a whisper.

He bit his lower lip, and let out a resigned sigh. "Okay."

She smiled up at him and lifted herself up from the pillows to deposit a soft kiss on his lips.

"Thanks." Her voice was warm and gracious as she planted another kiss on him. His lips heated when they came in contact with hers, causing his primal instincts to take over. He opened his mouth, his tongue immediately demanding access to hers. She accepted his invasion, and willingly submitted to his attack.

Her breathing became more intense, when Reid's hand moved to her breast. A moan fell from her lips as they broke the kiss. He lowered his head, latching onto her nipple and suckling like a hungry child. Her moans grew louder, signaling her arousal which was reaching a height she never thought possible. She sank her hand into his hair, holding him against her breast and silently begging him to go on.

"Did you know," he said between bites of her flesh, alternating from one taut pink nipple to the other, "that there are some studies," She raised her back from the bed, her body craving more of him with each nibble he took, "which attempted to map all the erogenous zones of the human body?"

"Hm?"

"Yes, you see, there is this one." He dragged his thumb up the inner side of her knee, making her writhe and moan.

"Quite effective, hmm? And…" He moved down her placing hot kisses on her along the way.

"Ahhhhh."

"There is this one." he trailed his tongue lightly across her lower abdomen.

"Oh my God!"

"Now if I apply a certain amount of pressure here…"

"AHHHH."

He pressed his fingers into her, watching her thighs start to convulse, "Fascinating."

"Uhmmm."

"I've read extensively on the subject. Now there's something I've always wanted to try. Where is it?" He flexed his fingers, trying to the right spot.

"I think it's somewhere...here." his long fingers curved upward and her reaction was immediate: she moaned loudly, clawing at the sheets as her orgasm hit her with so much force her toes went numb.

"Cool. Let's do it again." Reid said, his eyes dancing with excitement.

"Huh?"

He smiled at her still dazed expression, and dove back into her body. Using the same single-mindedness he applied to his scientific study, he made her cry out in ecstasy, bringing her to orgasm another time.

Before he was even close to being finished with his exploration, Moni was a sobbing mass of hormones on the bed, begging him to take her out of her misery.

He relented, moving back up to hover over her. He looked contemplatively into her caramel eyes which were staring at him in fascination.

"Are you okay?"

"Oh my God."

"The name is Spencer, not God." She smiled at him for a moment until her smile graduated into a chuckle. She soon found herself laughing, as a post-orgasmic gaiety settled over her. He looked at her face, bright with amusement, and soon joined her in laughter.

"No, I'm serious here. Are you okay?"

"I might die if it gets any better." she sighed.

He looked down at himself, his shyness returning with her comment. She gave him a coy look, lowering her hand between their bodies to take him between her fingers.

"I'm ready, Spencer."

She positioned him against her opening, and he stared into her eyes while he slowly sank home.

CM CM CM CM

"Reid, are you okay?"

Reid blinked, and looked up at Prentiss, who was looking worriedly at him.

"What?"

"I asked you if you are okay."

His eyes checked the precinct, and noticed several cops throwing unfriendly looks at the corner where the BAU team had settled down. JJ was approaching them with a serious expression on her face.

"I'm fine. Any news yet?" He asked.

JJ looked at Reid and shook her head, "No, the officer who attacked her apparently is the nephew of a councilman, so they are already asking to pay the bail. He might go free."

Reid glared out at the cops gathered around the lawyers, working to free their colleague.

"She was right; no one cares about the bad things that might happen to a thief."

"No, she was wrong," Prentiss said walking up to his turned back, and looking over his shoulder, "you care."

He glanced over at Prentiss, who was smiling at him, and he sighed tiredly, "I just don't know if that's enough anymore."

Hotch approached his agents, having just spoken with the sheriff, "Despite the lawyers' attempts to free them, the sheriff will hold the cops without bail for forty eight hours. But we will need her testimony for the charges to hold against him." He glanced at Reid, who was staring at the officers with an unfriendly frown on his face. "Reid," he didn't respond, "REID."

Reid startled and turned to face the team leader's serious expression.

"Focus, please. Growling at corrupt cops will not help us find her before the unsub does."

Reid nodded, following the team to the table, to check the preliminary profile they had for the investigation.

"What do we have so far?" he asked.

"We have a psychopath, who is targeting thieves who he believes to have stolen a pendrive from his first victim. He kills by means of a sharp instrument- probably a knife- thrust into the neck region- rupturing the airways and killing within a few minutes," Derek reported.

"The victimology is of extreme importance here, as with the exception of the first victim, who was a reporter, we now have four well known thieves who were slaughtered. These people are not easy to catch unaware" Rossi said, looking at each of the teammembers, "they are suspicious by nature, not trusting easily anyone who crosses their path."

"So our unsub is able to approach them without raising suspicion. He belongs to their circles, yet he targets the same individuals that he shares his existence with," Prentiss said.

"Or he's someone they expect to see mixing with the underground," Reid stated, staring at the pictures on their murder board.

"What are you thinking, Reid?"

Reid tapped his pen to his palm, feeling a nervous tension rushing through his body.

"Something Moni said," he strolled over to the City map on the wall, searching for the hint Moni had unknowingly left him.

"Reid, care to share?" Hotch asked.

Reid turned back to his teammates.

"The library."

"What's with the library, kid?"

"She said that Declercq moved to this city because they had a big library, so he could borrow books whenever he felt like it. She also liked going there whenever she was in town visiting Declercq."

"Do you think she might be there?"

"No, but if she has a registration there to borrow books…"

"She had to have listed an address on it. Morgan, go with Reid and check it out."

Both agents got up to leave when Hotch stopped them with a warning, "Be discreet. Right now we have a whole precinct full with cops angry at her, and also a killer out there somewhere who's after her. If you find her, do your best to bring her in discreetly."

"Ok, Hotch."

"Meanwhile, we'll check with Garcia and see if she has any info on the encryption of the pendrive we sent her," Prentiss said, already dialing the tech.

"And I'll have a little talk with a self serving bastard currently rotting in interrogation," Rossi said, standing up and going to interrogate the rapist in Interrogation Room 2.

* * *

a/n: Reid is zoning out... a lot... Good memories, uhm?


	10. Following the breadcrumbs

**_Chapter 10: Following the breadcrumbs_**

Reid and Morgan walked into the main library of the county not long after leaving the precinct. After asking some questions they were directed to a soft spoken woman, with her white hair tied loosely in a bun on the back of her head. Her name tag loudly proclaimed that her name was Christie.

"Hello, ma'am, I'm SSA Morgan and this is Dr. Reid, we're from the Behavioral Analysis Unit of the FBI. We need some information."

"Sure, how can I help the FBI?"

Reid glanced around the ample room in the vain hope of catching a glimpse of Moni.

"We're actually seeking information on a person who might have a registration with you here to borrow books. Her name is Monica Law."

Upon hearing the name, the old librarian smiled brightly at the agents.

"Oh, you're friends with Moni? Which one of you is Spencer?"

That took them by surprise. Reid apprehensively stepped forward, clearing his throat.

"I'm Spencer Reid, ma'am. Why do you ask?"

Her smile widened as she walked around the counter to give him a maternal hug. Reid awkwardly returned the hug, and she stepped back after a moment, molding his face in her soft hands that smelled of Victoria Secret's pear handcream.

"Oh, you are even more handsome than she told me! Moni is a lucky girl. Please, follow me."

They silently followed her down the aisles of the library- shooting silent questions at each other behind her back- until they reached the Children's Literature section. She looked around the shelves, and let out a small "aha" when found the very old, muted colored tome. She blew the dust off of it, before handing it to Reid.

"What is it?" he asked.

"I don't know. But she said you would." She said before leaving to return to her post.

"Hey, wait?"

She turned back to Reid and, guessing at his confusion, decided to share her knowledge of the young woman that was so taken with him.

"Moni is a very sweet girl. A little bit airy in the head and somewhat out of touch with reality, but she is very sweet. Since she was just a little girl- all pigtails, long arms and legs- she used to come here and sit right there on that sofa," she pointed to the cream colored couch, "with books as her faithful companions. Sometimes that old gentleman, Declercq, would come and sit with her and talk about the places that he had seen in his long life. Considering where she came from, I can understand why she would love the tidbits of attention the old man gave her."

"What do you mean, where she came from?" Reid asked.

"She was an orphan," she sighed sadly, "Passed from one family to the other until she finally settled down with the Laws. They adopted her, but never really loved her. They just wanted the paycheck that came with her. The only person who ever gave her any attention was Declercq."

She looked at the book in Reid's hands pensively, "I don't know what's in the book, but when she called this morning, she told me to give it to you, Spencer, because you would know what it means. She is strange like that, always speaking in riddles."

At that, she left again for her post.

Reid frowned down at the book. It was a very old, musty version of the Brothers' Grimm Fairy Tales. He ruffled through the pages, seeing several handwritten notes on the book corners. Obviously the person who read it had written down her thoughts and feelings about the stories as they came to her.

"What is it?" Morgan asked, looking at the book over Reid's shoulders.

"I don't know but …" he reached the beginning of the Hansel and Gretel's story, and read the note written on the corner.

_Do you wanna play?_

"I think it's a riddle."

"A riddle?"

"Yeah," he turned to the next page, "breadcrumbs." He pointed to the next handwritten note.

_You have to follow the clues._

"Clues to where?" Morgan asked.

"Not to where, to whom."

Reid lifted the book, showing Morgan the first clue.

_Once upon the time, there was a little girl, who lived in an old abandoned castle…_

CM CM CM CM CM

Moni was singing softly under her breath, sitting before a drawing board in her hiding place- at the top floor of an abandoned glass producing plant in the industrial district. She knew the area was empty of activity, so she had cleaned up the last floor and transformed it into a nice nest. She had done a good job at decorating it to her own style and taste.

She grabbed an apple from the fruit tray sitting by the drawing board, and bit into it, relinquishing on the sweet taste as she stared at her latest drawing.

She took another pencil from her pencil box- this one a little bit softer- and added shadows here and there to the figure she was drawing by memory.

She smiled at the finished work, but soon sobered as she absorbed the impact of the image.

It was yet another picture she had drawn of Spencer, a pencil sketch of him with his gun holster hanging from his belt and a scarf hanging from his neck. The original scarf was purple, but she had added some drawing pattern to the shadows to give the impression of delicately woven wool. He wore a vest over his white shirt, and his face was graced by a smile from ear to ear.

She sighed, getting up and turning her back on her creation. She walked to her small fridge and pulled bottle of water out of it, before going back to stand close to her drawing board.

Regardless of what might happen, if he found her or not, that would be the only image of Spencer smiling at her that she would ever see. He must have been mad at her for escaping the guards, she thought, but they had hurt her. They had laughed as the old pig abused her, and didn't come to help when she had cried out in pain.

She couldn't stay with the pig and his little piglets.

So she'd ran to him. He'd soothed her hurt. He had shown her that not everybody was a selfish pig. Although some people appeared to be nice and turned out to be anything but, he was different. Spencer and his partners in the BAU helped people, and they hunted monsters that hurt people like Moni.

So, when he found her, Moni decided, she would tell him where the pendrive was and hope that when they got there, Pete would have already cracked the encryption on the data.

She frowned a little, as she clearly remembered that there were pictures on the pendrive, some nice pictures of a party in a big house. The pretty sunset in the pictures is what initially drove her to take the pendrive.

_But why would someone kill so many people over some pictures?_

She began biting her nails, chewing the soft tissue almost to the skin, as she thought of all the people dead over the pictures she had stolen. There were many other pictures on the pendrive. She had taken a peek at them before she disconnected the pendrive from the laptop and escaped from the hotel room, but she only _really_ looked at the pictures of the pretty sunset.

The computer in the corner beeped. Moni's eyes darted to the screen and she immediately frowned as the motion sensored alarm Pete had installed on the lower floors for her protection informed her that there was someone else in the building.

She walked over to the computer and typed in the password. The image of a policeman slowly advancing into the old glass factory, gun in hand, popped up on the monitor.

She quickly grabbed a black pullover from the dresser and put it on along with her favorite pair of running sneakers, the ones that allowed her to move silently on any floor.

She went back to the computer to check the progress of the intruder, and saw him coming to the second floor of the plant, walking down the aisle of inoperable glass cutting machines.

"It's showtime," she said.


	11. Where the breadcrumbs lead

**_Chapter 11: Where the breadcrumbs lead_**

"Garcia, I need your help, baby girl" Morgan spoke on speakerphone as Reid took notes on what he read in the book.

"Talk to me, oh delicious one, and _moi_, the most incredible source of all knowledge and information, shall answer you,"

"Garcia," Reid called out, "I need you to search for a place with the following parameters, and you can limit your search to properties located only within 20 miles of the county's main library."

"Talk to me, boy genius."

"The property is probably of commercial or industrial use. It's been abandoned for several years, but it was used in some kind of activity related to glass or crystal: either to create, cut, or mold- one or both of them. It's located close to a green area- a park or small reserve- and it has been struck by lightning, suffering extensive damage some years ago. It also has some relation to the name or word Wolf."

Garcia entered the information in her computers, mouthing the words as her deft fingers typed.

"Garcia," Morgan called out after some time.

"I'm working on it, just a minute, my dark chocolate god," Garcia muttered.

"Garcia, the place also needs electricity and running water, so despite the fact that the place is abandoned, the bills are up to date and being paid in a timely manner."

"Oh, yes, I found it," she grinned, and turned to her phone, speaking in an animated voice.

Reid quickly found a pen to write down the address.

"It's Wolfstone's Craftworks Co. It's located in Industrial Area 5, just beside Lorne's Park, which is a small wooded area right in the outskirts of the city, very famous amongst bird watchers."

"Are you sure it's the right one?"

"Well, the glass cutting and molding plant was closed ten years ago when Mr. Wolfstone Sr. died and Junior decided not to follow his father's steps. They went into bankruptcy and never opened the doors again. It was struck by lightning five years ago, suffering extensive damage and hear this-"

They could hear Garcia's fingers flying across her keyboard as she kept them In suspense, "What?"

"Light and water bills are religiously paid by none other than Declercq St. Clair, thief extraordinaire."

"Do you have an address?"

She spouted off the address, and Reid and Morgan rushed out of the library, to their Suburban. Morgan climbed into the driver's seat, while Reid immediately called Hotch to inform him that they knew where she was.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

The cop slowly made his way into the glass plant, looking for any sign of the thief everyone was searching for.

He saw a door further ahead, leading to another room, and stretched his hand along the door to open it. He entered the darkened room and ran his hand over the wall by the door, looking for a light switch. When finally found and flipped the light switch, he was surprised to see himself in a mirrored room. Despite the abandoned air that permeated the place in the lower levels, the room full of mirrors was impeccably clean. The mirrors- one turned facing the other- gave the optical illusion of several rooms. A small bit of light slithered into the maze room, reflecting from one mirror to the other and creating a mesmerizing effect of light and shadows.

His hands clasped at air before him, trying to figure out what was a mirror and what was a reflection of it.

Suddenly, a woman appeared in one of the mirrors, her dark eyes staring straight at him. He took a step forward, and he was instantly surrounded by reflections of her figure in all the mirrors.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"Give me the pen drive, bitch, and I might not kill you."

"Why are you killing people? The things in the pen drive, they are just pictures."

"Give me the pen drive, that's the last warning I'm going to give you. I'm not going to repeat myself again."

Moni's stared at him from every mirror. He kept his gun raised even though he was unsure if the image was the real thief or just a reflection.

"There's something there, isn't it? Something you don't want anyone to see."

He pointed his gun at another mirror, but as he got closer, he realized that it was just another illusion.

"Give me the pen drive." he shouted.

"Give me, give me, give me. Is that all you can say?"

Infuriated, he started shooting the mirrors. The bullets collided with the glass, causing the images around him to shatter and disappear. His gun clicked, signaling an empty clip. He reloaded his gun, warily checking over his shoulder to make sure no one was trying to sneak up on him. Once he had a full round of ammo in his weapon he looked around the room for his target. The floor was covered with mirror shards, and he could now see that there was no exit but the one he had entered. _So where had she come in from? _he thought.

Walking backward to the one door, he exited to an ample warehouse room where the glass cutting machines were. He suddenly heard hurried steps to his right, and started running towards them with his gun aimed.

He caught a glimpse of a woman in black clothes ducking between the machines and fired a shot at her. She quickly disappeared behind a door, barely dodging his bullet.

He gave chase, shooting in the direction he had seen her run. He cursed when he ran into another dirty room that was connected to the lower level by a fireman's pole. He ran towards the hole and looked down to the lower floor, looking directly at the thief as she stared up at him. He aimed down at her and shot, but she was faster, throwing herself out of his shot range and promptly running for her life.

He grasped the pole and slid down to the lower level, but by the time he got there she was nowhere to be seen.

He had lost her.

CM CM CM CM CM

The team parked their two Suburbans in front of the main entrance to the warehouse of Wolfstone Craft Co. and found a police cruiser parked in front as well. Hotch, Prentiss, and Rossi got out of the first one while Reid and Morgan left the second, walking toward two cops who salute them with a nod.

"What are you doing here?" Hotch asked, not bothering with formalities.

"We received a call of vandalism and shots fired. We came to look it up and chased a suspect into the building but we weren't able to apprehend her."

"Her? Did you see a woman in the building?" Reid asked, looking up at the dilapidated five story building.

"Yes, sir, but she ran like a scared rat when we entered the room."

"I'm guessing you drew your guns at her? Was there any reason for that?" Rossi intervened.

The two cops shrugged staring at the profilers with impassive faces.

"We were just doing our jobs, sir. We were protecting ourselves from what we considered to be an armed individual."

Hotch glared at the two armed officers and signaled to his team to enter the building.

They entered in formation, clearing room by room on the empty and dusty ground floor until they reached the first floor. In it, several machines used for polishing glass were positioned in rows.

They found stairs leading to the upper room and followed them to the second floor. They divided up, each agent going down an aisle. Morgan froze when something on the floor glistened in the dull light. He walked up to it, taking it into his hand.

"Hotch," he shouted to the team leader, who soon walks up to him.

Morgan held up the bronze metal, and Hotch nodded.

"Bullet casings. At least three of them. Someone tried very hard to shoot something here."

"Or someone," Hotch muttered, looking around and finding the corresponding bullet holes in the machines. Rossi was in the next aisle, trying to gauge the direction of the bullets when Prentiss' voice traveled across the room.

"Guys, you better see this," she said, signaling for them to follow her.

Hotch, Rossi and Morgan walked to the end of the aisle, toward an opened door. Reid was standing in the threshold. He turned to the agents as they came closer and side-stepped, giving them a chance to look inside.

It was a low ceiling room, painted completely in black, like a box. Its only source of light came from strategically placed light bulbs inside hollowed out structures. Structures on the floor and on the ceiling that clearly had once held mirrors, which were now reduced to shards on the floor.

"What is this?"

Rossi stepped into the room and studied the frames on the floor, that seemed to follow a specific pattern of allocation.

"I believe it is a crazy mirror room, like those found in children carnivals. Where you are supposed to guess where the entrance, the mirrors, or the next exit is."

"There are bullet holes in the walls," Reid said, stepping on the broken glass near a far away wall. "Apparently, someone didn't enjoy the riddle and tried to shoot his way out of it."

Hotch looked around, noticing that, besides the door they had used to enter, the room seemed to not to have another way out. Reid walked along the broken glass until he reached the opposing wall, and gingerly stuck his finger into one of the bullet holes in the black wall.

"Guys," he called out, taking his finger out of the bullet hole and running his hand over the wall.

"Found something, Reid?"

Rossi approached the young profiler, who was knocking on the hollow wall.

"This wall is fake. There is a breeze coming from the other side."

The other team members rushed over and began tapping the wall, looking for some hidden disposition that might lead to the other side.

"Found it," Morgan informed, and pressed a small, black square into the wall. On command a section of the wall silently slid to the side, working off of hydraulic power. They found a dark corridor, leading up to another level. Rossi found a light switch, which inundated a long set of stairs, and the profilers began climbing them, all their hands firmly gripping their guns.

They reached the top of the stairs, that lead to a small hallway, impeccably clean, with carefully tended potted plants lining the floor. There was a white door at the end of the hallway with a small, pink, handmade welcome sign hanging on it from a nail.

They all shared an amused moment as they imagined the harebrained thief singing as she carefully painted her own welcome sign.

Hotch pointed with his head for Morgan to take the lead. Morgan kicked the door open and entered the room, followed closely by the team.

They paused immediately after taking their first steps into the cathedral like hall, softly illuminated by sunlight. White curtains hung by the windows and danced softly in the breeze.


	12. Tell me that you'll open your eyes

**_Chapter 12: Tell me that you'll open your eyes _**

_All this feels strange and untrue  
And I won't waste a minute without you  
My bones ache, my skin feels cold  
And I'm getting so tired and so old _

Soft music flowed from a hidden stereo into the room, as the agents carefully inspected the airy loft. The wide room with its high ceiling was bathed in white, and the huge windows allowed for light to permeate every crevice of the spacious living area. There were colored, cube storage seats- one beside the other- around a small kitchen table, and a bright Native American rug on the floor in what the supposed was the dining area.

What shocked them into a reverent silence were the works of art tastefully spread out in the open space. Each one was strategically placed to receive the the most flattering angle of light.

On the right side hung perfect replicas of famous paintings: Monet, Degas, Van Eyck, Van Gogh, Picasso. All great masterpieces copied in perfect detail.

On the left side, original artworks. Explosions of color and form, some studies of abstract swirls, others an abundance of information filled with color and rigorous composition.

One was of a Madonna holding the baby Jesus, the traces reminiscent of Da Vinci's _Pieta_, with soft colors and bright backgrounds in Renaissance style. Another one, was an inspired interpretation of the _Three Graces. _However, instead of young women dressed in diaphanous cloth- as in the original Botticelli's _Spring_ painting- she used three heavily armed men with guns and knives in military fatigues, dancing and holding flowers with a desert background.

_The anger swells in my guts  
And I won't feel these slices and cuts  
I want so much to open your eyes  
'Cause I need you to look into mine_

_Tell me that you'll open your eyes _

Hotch and Rossi walked up to the sleeping area, situated beside what they could guess was a small office. Computer screens showing movement from the lower floors sat next to a drawing board, papers, and pencils.

Prentiss shook her head as she looked at the carefully made bed, with its white floral bed sheets and several fluffy pillows stamped with images of the _Powerpuff Girls_ and _My little Pony_. She stepped over to the bookshelf, and scanned the titles. To her surprise she found a variety of writers: from Greek philosophers to Adams Smith, Karl Marx, and Noam Chomsky. On the same shelf were Harlequin Romance novels and Harry Potter books.

She picked up a book from the bedside table, a worn out copy of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's _Love in Times of Cholera._

Reid wondered from one painting to the other, studying the patterns and colors. Each painting brought even more confusion to his mind as he was forced to review his opinion of the woman who had climbed across a 20th story ledge to get to his hotel room.

He turned around and walked over to a huge mural. It was obviously incomplete, if the dirty brushes and rags were any indication. He glanced at the art book she was using as inspiration and then at the incomplete copy she was making of Michelangelo's _Last Judgment_ mural in the Sistine Chapel.

Rossi appeared at his side, looking from the mural to him. Reid couldn't seem to remove the look of amazement from his face, despite Rossi's blatant stare.

"We were wrong," Reid finally said, breaking the silence.

"Yes, we were," Rossi agreed, turning to study the painting.

"Her fixation with beauty is not resultant of an obsessive compulsive disorder, but a direct result of her inherent need of finding it to express it later in her paintings. She's not mentally challenged she's … she's…" he struggled to admit it.

"She's what, Reid?"

"Hotch, she's…"

Hotch could see that his young genius was having difficulty admitting that he had interpreted something- or in this case, someone- wrong. All of them had looked only at the superficial signs, and labeled Moni as what everybody else had before: A thief with a very light-minded personality.

They had missed the little details, and now they needed to find her, before their killer did.

"She's what, kid?" Morgan asked, turning over a handmade clay model replica of Rodin's _The Kiss_ sculpture in his hands.

"She's a genius. She's a modern day _Da Vinci_." He pointed to the copies of the paintings, "Her ability to copy the great masters down to the last detail indicates a mind focused to minutia. She nailed down even the strokes they made in their original artwork. I mean, if I hadn't known the originals are safe and sound in their respective museums, I would think these are originals. And…" he walked to the left side of the loft, where her original paintings were, "… her original artwork is a very impressive example of how she absorbed everything the great masters took years to learn and reinterpreted into original art. Her symmetry is perfect, and if I'm not mistaken, she is using the Fibonacci sequence instinctively in her compositions."

"She's an artist, a great one, but why did she become a thief?" Morgan asked, staring at the small clay model in his hand.

"Maybe because that's the only thing she was taught to do," Prentiss suggested, looking into an old oak chest she had opened out of curiosity.

"What do you mean?" Rossi asked.

Prentiss lifted a plastic bag from the chest, duly cataloged with a label.

"These are all the things Moni stole during her active career as a thief. Each one is labeled with a small reference number on it. She never sold anything she stole, even though some of these things have great monetary value. She never sold them, she kept them," Prentiss took the other bags from the chest, naming them out loud, "a Rolex watch, a diamond ring in a very old setting, a Mont Blanc pen. She could have sold it, but she kept it. Why?"

Rossi approached Prentiss, and silently asked to see one of the plastic bags. He stared at the label for a moment, then looked at the books on the bookshelf. Spotting a thick red notebook, he pulled it down from the shelf and opened it. Inside the notebook were reference numbers, matching the numbers on the labels.

He read the entry regarding the stolen artifact and frowned as the pieces of the puzzle became even more confusing.

_Get up, get out, get away from these liars  
'Cause they don't get your soul or your fire  
Take my hand, knot your fingers through mine  
And we'll walk from this dark room for the last time_

"These are not robberies. They're homework assignments." He said while reading the detailed reports in her curly handwriting. "Declercq wasn't training her to be a thief; he was training her to be an expert of breaking and entering unnoticed. He didn't expect her to steal anything of value, but he expected her to relate in detail each step of her breaking into a place, finding its weakest points, and organizing a list of possible outcomes of how to overcome the difficulties in the way."

He handed the notebook to Hotch, who read the entry related to the artifact in his hand.

"The stolen artifacts were just mementos, the real assignment was to come and go unnoticed in the most advanced security systems in use," Hotch muttered, reading the next entry in the notebook.

"But why?" Reid asked, looking contemplatively at a copy of a Degas painting_, The Ballet Class_.

"Oh my God," Prentiss whispered. She looked from the bagged pen in her hand to the Degas painting, and then to Hotch.

"What?"

She put the plastic bag back in the chest, before rushing over to Reid, "You said that, if you didn't know that the originals were safely where they should be, you would think these are originals, right?"

"Why are you asking me that?"

"I mean, at first glance, only a real specialist, with a very good eye, doing a series of tests would recognize them as fake, such is her talent."

"Yes," Reid was still confused about her line of questioning, "what's your point?"

Prentiss spoke to Hotch then, "My mom has been bugging me about this art exposition they are going to have in New York. All the big names: Degas, Van Gogh, Picasso, Monet, all of them. It's set to start next week, and the security will be state-of-the-art. At least, that's how they are advertising it."

"Your point," Hotch said, wanting Prentiss to voice her theory.

"What if …" she pointed to the perfect copies "Declercq's idea was to substitute the paintings for the fake ones during the time they were being exposed in New York? He trained Moni to come and go unnoticed, and he religiously cultivated her obsession with whatever is pretty. He would use her to substitute the paintings at some point in the exhibition, and by the time they figured out that a robbery had taken place-"

"He and Moni would be far away with the originals. No one would know the time the switch had been made as the fakes would have been hanging in the museum for a long time by then, until some expert decided to examine the paintings." Hotch finished for her, looking at the perfect copy of a Picasso painting.

_Every minute from this minute now  
We can do what we like anywhere  
I want so much to open your eyes  
'Cause I need you to look into mine_

_Tell me that you'll open your eyes_

"But he never imagined that he would be dead days before his master plan was put in action, all because Moni stole the wrong memento in one of her breaking and entering assignments."

Hotch spied Reid, who was standing in front her drawing board, staring at something she had left incomplete there.

"Reid, would she do the switch? Would she willingly exchange the paintings?"

Reid took the drawing from the board, and answered in a low voice, "the paintings appeal to her need for beauty, and Declercq is the only real father figure she has ever had."

He looked down at the drawing she had made of him- smiling and happy- and sighed.

_All this feels strange and untrue  
And I won't waste a minute without you_

"Reid, answer the question."

"She would do it if he _asked _her to."


	13. Broken Hearted Melody

a/n: First of all, I apologize for the delay in updating this story. I had other ongoing projects that took precedence over this one.

Second of all, I've done a revision on the whole text of the story, correcting some minor English mistakes and changed the whole second chapter, which I was very unhappy with it. So, if you are one of those who was tearing your hair out because my English mistakes, take the time to check the story over again, I've done my best to correct them.

And here we have a brand new chapter of the story of a Bird who fell in love with a Fish- I mean - a thief who fell in love with a Fed.

p.s.: Thanks Sukalia, you are the best.

* * *

**_Chapter 13: Broken Hearted Melody_**

_Don't leave me in all this pain  
Don't leave me out in the rain  
Come back and bring back my smile  
Come and take these tears away  
I need your arms to hold me now_

**_Annie Lennox – Walking on broken glass _**

Moni rushed, out of breath, into Peter's batcave. She sat down on his comfy leather seat, hugging her legs to her chest. The hacker was nowhere in sight, probably working in the electronics thrift shop he used as a front for his illegal hacker activities. She had escaped within an inch of her life, and now she was sure she couldn't trust anyone on the police force.

Maybe not even Spencer. She had told him where she lived, and he had sent the killer to her address.

She sniffed and tears began to fall down her face as she realized that she was alone. Utterly alone. That's how Pete found her some hours later.

CM CM CM CM

"All these computers seem too advanced for Moni alone have them set up. She must have had help," Morgan said, as he inspected the internet setup she had on her worktable.

"Has she ever mentioned anyone who could have helped her with this, Reid?" Hotch asked. He sighed when he turned around and spotted Reid sitting in one of the orange storage cubes, ruffling the pages of a drawing notebook.

"Reid," he called out.

Reid looked up with very angry eyes, taking Hotch by surprise, "Why do you people think that she told me her whole life story in just a few hours?"

Morgan, Prentiss and Rossi gaped at Reid, taken off guard by his outburst. He continued in an agitated tone.

"No, she didn't, actually, she said very little during the time we were together; and apparently I wasn't listening very well because I missed a lot of what she was saying. I mean," he waved his hand around the room, "I should have seen the signs, but I was so…"

"Reid," Morgan walked up to Reid and placed a hand on his shoulder. "She chose not to tell you. She knew exactly what she wanted from you, and she fought for it. She knew you could soothe her hurt and that's all she wanted from you."

"She was hurting, Morgan."

"Yes, she was. And you helped her, but now you have to get back in your game, so you can help her again."

Reid gazed down at the drawing notebook in his hand, and showed an open page to Morgan.

"She has Asperger's Syndrome. All the signs are here, in her notebooks. Her difficulties with social interaction, her obsession with all things pretty and her extreme regard to repetitive routines. Even her failure to react appropriately in social interactions which may come off as a conscious disregard to other people's feelings is a clear sign of it."

"How did she go undiagnosed for so long?" Rossi asked from his seat on the bed.

"Apparently, Declercq played her right into his hand. He wanted her to be unaware of her condition, to think of herself as a strange kid who needed guidance so she would willingly seek his help," Prentiss queried.

"Morgan, you said that this computer setup is too advanced for Moni alone to have put it together. Reid, do you agree with his assessment?" Hotch asked.

Reid nodded his bowed head, as he read another page in one her notebooks, "She knows just enough to use it, she couldn't put this together on her own."

"Call Garcia, ask her if there is anyone with computer knowledge in Declercq's circle of acquaintances that could have set this up." Hotch said to Morgan.

"On it, Hotch."

"Reid,"

"Yes."

Reid refused to look at Hotch, ashamed of how he had been behaving since the case had started, and also furious at himself for being so blind and misreading Moni. Hotch walked up to him, and waited for Reid to acknowledge his presence.

"Look at me, Reid."

Reid sighed and met Hotch's eyes, letting all his hurt show on his face.

"I don't think she wanted to hurt you on purpose, but she didn't want to tell you she was in pain. She didn't want to be reminded of her hurt when she was with you; she wanted to be happy, and you gave her that. One night of pure happiness. You didn't have the necessary information to do an accurate profile, none of us did. We are all as guilty as you are for misreading her, and I hope that we have the chance of make it up to her when we finally find her."

"Are we going to help her when we find her? Are we even allowed to?" Reid hoped he wouldn't be forced to let her down again.

"I'll see what I can do when the time comes. Right now, we need to concentrate on finding her."

"Thanks, baby girl," Morgan said before closing his phone. Turning to the other agents, Morgan reported. "Garcia said that one of Declercq's well known associates is a Peter Drake, known in the hacker world as Dragonseeker, hacker extraordinaire."

"So let's pay him a visit. Prentiss, you stay here and organize the bagging and tagging of all the stolen items with the help of the local police. Rossi, Reid, Morgan and I will visit a certain underworld hacker."

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

The four profilers pulled onto the neglected street in the old district downtown and instantly spotted the small electronic shop with several old TV sets on display.

"Are you sure this is the right address, Morgan?" Rossi asked, peering up and down the street, noticing the homeless people sleeping in front of a closed shop.

"Seventy-four percent of the people involved in illegal internet activity, such as hacking, invasion or pernicious virus creation, have a legitimate business to act as a front of their activities," Reid spouted off the information.

Morgan smiled at Rossi, "Garcia found the address. How many times has my baby girl made a mistake?"

"Good point," Rossi nodded and got out out of the car following Hotch, who was already entering the shop. A tiny bell announced his entrance.

The four agents entered the shop, and were overwhelmed with the scent of dust and the low buzz of a static. A man with graying hair was hunched over an old gramophone, delicately dismantling it with screwdriver in order to fix it.

"How can I help you, gentleman?" he said without looking up from the the tiny bolt he was unscrewing.

"We are looking for Peter Drake," Hotch said, approaching the counter with Morgan and Rossi flanking him on both sides. After a very short examination of the room, Reid found two security cameras, one turned to the door and another watching the counter.

"You found him." the man replied.

Pete wiped his hands and studied the four men in his shop. He immediately went on alert.

_Cops, _he thought, _Now we just have to find out if they are good or bad cops. _

"I'm SSA Aaron Hotchner, this is SSA Derek Morgan and SSA Rossi, over there is Dr. Spencer Reid. We're with the Behavioral Analysis Unit of the FBI and we're—"

"Wait a minute," Pete interrupted, and glared at Reid, who turned to look at him blankly, "are you Moni's Spence?" Pete asked, squinting at the gangly young man with the messy hair who looked like an escapee from a high school dance.

Reid frowned at the strange way Pete was looking at him, but agreed, "If, by implying that I belong to Monica Law, you mean that I'm the person who she has recently engaged in certain … private activities with then, yes, I am Moni's Spence."

Pete threw the screwdriver he held in his hand back in a tool bag on the floor, wiped his hand and walked around the counter, stalking the young profiler.

"What kind a man breaks a girl's heart like that? The only reason I don't break your neck for what you've done to my little girl is because you brought your gorilla friends with you. But I have all the right to rearrange your face, you pervert."

"I don't know what you're talking about, sir. I didn't hurt her. Actually, I've done my utmost to ensure that I wouldn't. I'm terribly worried about her though, as I had no idea that she had been abused before our … encounter … and I failed to notice that she was in pain. For that I'm terribly sorry, but please tell me, have you seen her?" Reid implored.

Pete stared at him for a moment, gauging his sincerity then shook his head, determined not to fall for any of the smart guy's lies, "She trusted you, kid. And you betrayed her trust when you sent those cops to her place. God knows how hard it was to teach her to mistrust every single person she meets. She's not very bright, you know, and Declercq and I, well, we've done our best to teach the kid how to survive in the jungle out there."

"Sir, we didn't send any cops to her place, you are mistaken. When we got to her place they were already there. She thinks I sent those cops there?" Reid, feeling slightly panicked, followed Pete as he walked back to the counter and started polishing a small gadget with an antistatic rag.

"How did they find her then? No one has ever found her there. We set up that place in a way that no one would ever figure out that someone was living there. How did they find out?"

Hotch approached the counter, "Sir, are you implying that we willingly put our witness at risk? We're trying to find her to protect her; we would never do such a thing."

Hotch's unmistakable conviction was enough, as Pete somehow sensed that the Fed was being truthful. He sighed in defeat, placing the dirty rag and the electronic piece back on the counter.

"Then you have a rat in your midst, because I can't think of any other way they could have found her if not for fishing the information from you guys. She is scared, and for good reason."

"She is here, isn't she? May I talk to her?" Reid asked.

"You're not talking to her."

"Why not?"

"You've done enough damage, kid. You better leave now. I've got work to do."

"Sir, I don't think you understand. She is danger."

"Yes, and I'll protect her." He stood toe to toe with Reid, "that's what I've always done, and what I'll always do. Have you really paid attention to anything she says? Talking to her is like talking to Einstein's brainchild stuck in the body of Playboy bunny, with the malice of an overactive four year old. She absorbs information like a dry sponge, but she can't see that people can be purposely evil."

"It's because of her condition. I just want to help her."

"Condition? What are you talking about? Anyway, you've done enough."

Pete turned his back to the profilers, silently dismissing them. Reid followed him still, talking to his back and trying persistently to make his point.

"She has what doctors call Asperger's Syndrome. It's from the same disease spectrum of Autism, but sufferers usually do not present any mental retardation or development problems. It doesn't have a cure, but it is treatable."

"Are you saying that my Moni is retarded?" Pete growled irratably. Reid scrambled to explain, without pissing Pete off even more.

"No, she is not retarded. She just needs help. Professional help. But in order to help her, we have to keep her alive. So please, sir, where is she?"

Pete sighed and glanced at the small camera in the corner. Reid immediately perked up.

"She's watching us, isn't she?"

Pete shook his head, "She doesn't want to see you, kid."

"Moni is watching us, right?" Reid walked up to the camera, and spoke to her through the lenses, "Moni, I didn't send anyone to your place. I swear I didn't." Pete huffed, but Reid went on talking to the camera. "I know you are scared, and mad at me. I misread the signs and in the end, I failed to see you were… in pain. I'm sorry for that, but you should have told me, you should have trusted me, because… I would have done my best to protect you. I told you that I… care and that… if someone hurts someone else, I would do my best to make sure that that creep is punished. That's what I do. Remember what you said about sociopaths and pedophiles? Well, I _hunt_ those guys. Me and my team's job is to put those monsters away, so they can't hurt… people like you. I want to make it up to you, but _you have to trust me_." He said passionately.

The team waited to see if there was any answer from the woman watching. After a whole minute, and no sign of Moni, Pete shook his head to the Reid, who lowered his head dejectedly.

"It's her choice, kid. I won't force her to do something she's not ready to do. God knows she has been forced to do enough."

"Sir, she is in danger," Hotch insisted, trying to convince him to grant them access to her.

"Not inside my walls. She's got refuge in here." Giving another big sigh, he relented, "you can keep watch from outside my door, but I won't force her to go with you. If she doesn't want to see you, she won't. It's her choice."

Rossi walked up to the counter, "We could get a warrant and force you to turn her over to us."

Pete's hand came down hard on the counter. He leaned forward, sneering as he came closer to Rossi.

"Then do it. Get a warrant. But I guarantee you that, by the time you come back with it, I'll have her hidden so well that you won't ever find her."

He leaned back and looked over the four men, then turned his back on them.

"You'd better leave now. I've got to finish this." he said.

Reid glanced up at the camera, which was still recording them.

Hotch put his card down on the counter, "We're leaving a car outside for your own protection. We're going to get the warrant and we'll come back soon."

"Good. I'll be waiting for it."

Hotch nodded and motioned to Rossi and Morgan to get ready to leave. Reid was still looking at the camera. Morgan placed a hand on his shoulder, giving it a squeezed and Reid sighed.

"I'm sorry, Moni. I'm really sorry." he said softly to the camera before turning to leave.

He hung his head and followed the other three agents out of the electronics shop, at the same time that Pete looked up at the camera frowning. Things had happened quite differently than what Pete had expected.

CM CM CM CM

Moni sat in the secret workroom in the back, accessible only by a hidden door that only she and Pete knew of.

She watched the interaction between the agents and Pete, and began to sing softly under her breath as soon as Reid started giving his passionate speech to her on the video.

_If I'm not in love with you  
What is this I'm going through  
Tonight _

_And if my heart is lying then  
What should I believe in  
Why do I go crazy  
Every time I think about you, baby  
Why else do I want you like I do  
If I'm not in love with you _

When Rossi threatened Pete with a search warrant, she quickly lost interest. Leaning over in her chair to enter a command on the computer, she zoomed in on Reid's face, staring up at the camera with his soulful eyes.

Moni sighed and continued singing. She lifted her hand to touch the screen, tracing his face with her fingers.

_And if I don't need your touch  
Why do I miss you so much  
Tonight _

_If it's just infatuation then  
Why is my heart aching  
To hold you forever _

She sobbed once, her voice faltering, but she regained composure and kept on singing, tracing his eyebrow now with the tips of her fingers.

_Give a part of me I thought I'd never  
Give again to someone I could lose  
If I'm not in love with you _

Her voice broke again on the last note, and finally her sobbing was the only thing to be heard in the workroom.


	14. Feelings unveiled

**_Chapter 14: Feelings unveiled  
_**

Pete finishes his work on the shop and slowly puts away his tools, getting ready to close the shop before going to the back to the hidden workroom. However, before leaving the shop, he glances at the black SUV sitting at the door, and nods at Morgan and Reid inside of it. They wave back at him, and Pete closes the window panes and leaves.

Once he arrives in his workroom, he finds a desolated Moni staring at the replay of the recorded video surveillance showing the skinny fed talking passionately to the camera. There are tear tracks on her face and her eyes are red, but dry.

He walks up to the comfy chair she is sitting, with her legs under herself, and puts a hand on her shoulder and gives it a friendly squeeze.

"He seems to be a good man."

She bites her upper lip, and Pete can clearly see her eyes shining with unshed tears, which she refuses to let go.

"I know. He's one of the best."

Pete squeezes her shoulder again and looks at the screen of the other computer where his cryptography program was left running. He walks up to it and types a series of commands, and soon a new screen pops up.

"Hey, honey, I'm in."

She turns the chair, and looks at him with tired eyes. Pete sits down before the computer station and starts typing gain.

"What's in that junk that is so important that so many lives were destroyed for it?"

"Let's find out."

Another screen pops up, and a series of jpeg files appear on the screen.

"Pictures. Lots of them."

He turns to her, and she nods, bringing her chair to his side.

"I've known that. They're from a party in a big house with purple and red sunset on it. At least that was I've seen in the first pics."

Pete nodded, and turns to the computer. With only one click, he changes the view display of the pictures, and puts it on a slide show.

"Time to find out why people are dying for this."

CM CM CM CM

"Did you really mean what you've said in there?" Morgan asks Reid, who had been watching the door of the electronic shop for a long time without saying a word, which was very uncharacteristic for him. Usually he would be speaking a thousand words per minute, informing them of some data hidden somewhere in that huge brain of his.

"Which part?"

"The part you said you care. That you care about her."

Reid sighs and looks down at his hands, "I feel responsible for her."

Morgan studies Reid and says softly, "Somehow, I think that responsibility is the least she wants you to feel for her." Reid looks up from his hands at Morgan, and sees that the black profiler is dead serious. "I've seen the way she gazed at you, back in the precinct, and considering what you told us about your encounter and what we know has happened to her before that, I don't think it's just an infatuation on her part."

"What are you talking about? Are you implying that she … " Reid gulps, and forces himself to continue, "…that she somehow is in love with me? We've just met. We barely know each other. It doesn't make any sense. She can't love me."

Morgan watches the door again, and says softly, "That doesn't mean a thing on the matters of the heart, kid. Sometimes all it takes is a look, a glance, a word." He looks again at Reid, who is staring straight ahead with a lost expression on his face. "All I know is… once a girl is sexually assaulted, she usually abhors the idea of intimacy, even with her loved ones. In our own job, we've seen what a rape can do with vics. Some will never let a man touch them again. But Moni, she ran straight to you. Into your arms. I haven't spoken much with the kid, but … she wouldn't have done that if she didn't trust you intrinsically to protect her… and heal her. And in cases like this, only love can heal these wounds."

"I don't know how to feel about her. I don't know if I should feel anything about her." Reid finally admits, then glances at Morgan. "She confuses me and, at the same time, makes me laugh. For some reason, she thinks I'm wonderful… and perfect. She told me that. Nobody has ever looked at me like she did when we were together, like I was the most important person she has ever met."

"Do you still have any doubts about her feelings for you?" Morgan asks softly, and Reid shakes his head, looking again at the door of the shop, and he notices a patrol car slowly coming up the road and stopping in the other side of the street.

"No, but I don't know what to do when I finally see her again."

"Don't worry, kid. Trust your instincts. You've done well so far; you will do well next time you see her."

Morgan looks at the uniformed cop coming out of the patrol car, approaching the SUV. He lowers the window to talk the officer who walks up to his window.

"Hey, officer. Are you here to release us?"

"In a matter of speaking, yes."

He points his gun to Morgan's face.

CM CM CM CM

"Pete, why is he doing that with her? She doesn't want to."

Pete gulps as he watches the pictures appearing in the slide show. Each made him feel queasier on his stomach, and he felt more and more disgusted at the acts being performed in there.

"Pete, they are just kids, why is he hurting them? Why?" sobs Moni, and hides her face in her hands, trying to forget the images burnt on her brain.

"They don't want to do that. Why is he forcing them?" Pete hears Moni anguished question, and turns to her and hugs her, hiding her face on his shoulder as she sobs for the children in the pictures, having their innocence stolen just for the fun and pleasure of evil men.

He runs his hands through her dark brownish curls, and murmurs on her ear, as she sobs in his arms.

"Moni, listen to me. This is serious. These men are bad, but powerful. Only in the first pictures I could recognize the mayor's son, two or three politicians and the police commissioner's son-in- law. That's why you can't trust the cops, because they are probably trying to cover it up."

"Noooo."

"Listen, you can't fight them alone. If you go to the cops, they will bury this as fast as possible. It would be a scandal. That's why they want this so badly. We need help."

"They are hurting children, Pete. They are hurting them as they've hurt me."

"I know sweetheart. That's why we need someone we can trust. Someone who cares."

She lifts her face from his shoulder. "Spence cares. He would know what to do."

He nods, "I know. That's why I'm going out to call him inside. He needs to know what's going on. We must trust him with this. You understand what I'm saying."

She nods, "He might not love me like I do, but he cares about what's right. He hunts these people. He would care about the children."

"Good. Now stay here, don't open the door to anyone, and I'll bring him to talk to you in no time, ok?"

Moni nods, her curly hair bobbing around her tear stricken face, and Pete stands up, kisses her forehead in a paternal gesture before leaving her alone, walking in fast steps towards the shop and the FBI agents sitting outside in the car and leaving Moni alone with the horrifying pictures of innocence lost.


	15. Standoff

a/n: I'm really really sorry it took me so long to return to this story. I had a big dragon to kill on my writing schedule (feel free to visit my profile and check my other stories) and this one I had to set aside for a while. But we're baaaackkkkk and there will be shots, explosions and fireworks ahead! Also some Reid!whumping and Reid!Loving... after all, Reid has found his match.

He just doesn't know that yet.

He's the ONLY one who doesn't know that yet.

Kkkkkkkkkk

Anyway, I digress. Where were we? The big bad cop found Reid and Spencer sitting outside Pete's shop. Moni and Pete have just broken the cryptography of the pendrive and found out what was the reason why so many people are being killed. What does fate hold for our intrepid heros?

Thanks Kalia.

* * *

_**Chapter 15: Standoff**_

Once forcibly guided out of the car by the armed cop, Morgan and Reid walked towards the door of Pete's shop.

"What do you think you are doing, man? You can't possibly think you can get away threatening FBI agents."

"I'm doing my job. This silly girl has given us too much headache already. Now go in, and keep your hands where I can see them."

Reid glanced at Morgan, who shook his head, nodding toward the firm hand holding the gun. There was no reason for them to put their lives on the line and ultimately be unable to warn those inside of the immediate danger.

They stepped into the shop. A small bell on top of the door made a sweet sound, announcing their entry. Reid, walking further into the small room, glanced desperate at the small camera in the corner.

Morgan's eyes stayed on the cop who was now closing the door of the shop and locking it behind him. Morgan took his time to study the man before him who had yet to look away from him and Reid. He notices how the uniform is a comfortable fit. The frayed edges of his shirt sleeves, indicated several years of use.

"Why would a cop become a murderer?"

"Murderer? What murder? I was just doing my job, cleaning the city of this filth that fill our streets."

"And you think it's alright to clean our streets by cutting people's throats?"

He snickered, but his hand did not waver in its firm grip on the gun, "ah, but that was a special delivery, requested by someone very dear."

Reid hands mimed desperate signals to the camera behind his back, although his face showed no distress.

"So it was a hit kill. Why would someone bother with the activities of thieves in the area?"

"Ah... I will explain-"

"What's the meaning of this?" Pete's voice boomed from behind the counter. He stepped out of the backdoor leading to the offices and saw the two agents under duress.

What happened next lasted only a few seconds. Morgan jumped, trying to disarm the cop. They struggled. A loud bang resounded in the store just as blood spilled from Morgan's abdomen. Reid turned to run towards Pete, as he scrambled to the counter for his Winchester. Before Pete could turn the gun on the intruder, two bullets hit him in the chest. He reeled, his already lifeless body hitting the shelves overflowing with electronics behind him, and sliding to the floor.

Reid jump behind the counter, knowing that he alone against the killer wasn't a good match.

He drew his weapon and tried to take a look over the counter. The cop laughed as he slowly approached the counter. Certain that he had him cornered he called out, "What are you going to do, Dr. Reid?"

Reid, with his gun in hand, looked at the camera that was silently recording everything in the small room.

"RUN, MONI, RUN," he stood up from behind the counter and fired.

The sound of gunfire was deafening, but it barely covered the anguished screams sounding somewhere in the back of the shop.

CM CM CM CM CM

"What happened here?" Rossi looked worried at Hotch. Stopping the SUV a few yards away from the electronics shop, they rushed out to look at the agglomerate of police cars and the ambulance in front.

Both men ran towards the doors, presenting their badges to a rotund, blue uniformed man.

"What's going on?"

The officer glanced at their badges before taking in their faces, "We received reports of shots being fired. One of our units arrived and found a bleeding man by the door, another dead behind the counter."

They rushed past the officer towards the stretcher that was carefully being moved towards the ambulance.

"Oh, Morgan," Rossi was held back by one of the doctors when he rushed to his team mate's side.

"He's barely conscious, we have to stop the bleeding and rush to the hospital" the doctor informed him.

Hotch, despite the doctor's warning look, moved closer to hold his agent's hand. He squeezed it until Morgan's pain filled eyes met his.

"We're going to get whoever did this to you," Morgan struggled to sit up, but Hotch forced him back to the stretcher with a hand on his shoulder, "I have to know, where is Reid?"

"He... took … him." Morgan's eyes rolled and he loss consciousness. The EMTs immediately rushed him to the ambulance.

"Where are you taking him?" Hotch asked the man who was loading his teammate on the bus.

"Saint Cross Mercy Hospital," he responded before shutting the door and speeding off of the scene.

"Hotch," Rossi called, looking at the scene from the door.

Hotch stamped down his anger and started towards Rossi. "This has to end, and it ends now," he growled.

The inside of the small electronics shop looked like a scene out of a Wild West shoot out.

There were bullet holes in several walls, as well as a huge blood pool that probably came from Morgan. Several electronic boards had been thrown to the floor, and the old wooden counter was riddled with bullet holes. They walked around the cops and crime scene techs doing their work, and find Peter Drake's body being carefully moved into a body bag.

"This has to end," Hotch repeated, before glancing up to the camera. It had been shot as well. Rossi and Hotch moved to the backdoor, finding a small office that apparently lead to nowhere. File cupboards scaled one wall, and several shelves holding various electronic pieces were thrown all over the floor, giving the impressions that someone in a fit of rage had swept a hand over the shelves, with the sole purpose of destroying everything in his path.

The small room contains only one door, the one they entered in.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Rossi murmured.

Hotch nods, and both walk towards the opposite wall. Testing the bullet holes in it, they try to find the hidden mechanism like the one they found in Moni's hiding place .

A draft of air whisks through a hole near Rossi's hand.

After some struggle, they finally find the latch under the main desk. A small bolthole on the wall lies perfectly hidden by the hanging electronics from one of the shelves.

Through the bolthole, they find a bigger and more comfortable room that reminds them of Moni's place. The biggest difference are the top of the line computers lining the surface of a big conference table, and the comfortable leather sofas on one side. The blankets and the pillows indicated that someone had been sleeping there before.

"She was here," Hotch muttered.

"How can you be so sure?"

Hotch holds up a drawing of Reid sitting on a chair and looking to the side, laughing.

"Do you think she was able to escape?"

"If they had her, they wouldn't have kept Reid as a bargaining chip."

Hotch's phone rang then. Placing the drawing back on the desk, he answered it, "Hotch."

"Hotch, I think I've just found our rat," Prentiss said while glaring at the young police officer sitting at the dispatch desk.

"Good, because now the stakes are higher. He has Reid."

"What?"

"And Morgan was shot. We came with an warrant to get Moni out of Pete's custody and found an army of police cars and ambulances outside. A small war seemed to have exploded in the front room. Morgan is going to the hospital as we speak and Reid is nowhere to be found."

"Oh, my God. Have they got Moni too?"

"I don't know, but I don't think they do. Otherwise they wouldn't have taken Reid hostage."

"What do you want to do now?"

Hotch stared at the the drizzle of a turned off connection on the plasma screens.

"Rossi is going back to the precinct to help you interview the mole, and please ask JJ to meet me at the hospital. I want one of us watching over Morgan around the clock."

CM CM CM CM CM

Moni sat in a small cybercafe, desolate, hugging her knees and staring at the computer screen in front of her. She rubbed her dripping nose and wiped her tears, then smiled faintly at the waiter who came to collect her cup of tea.

"Hey, hon, do you need anything?"

Moni lifted her tear-filled eyes to the buxom blonde, and noticed the small name tag.

"More tea, please, Sue?"

Sue gave her a motherly smile, accepting her silent request to be left alone. After refilling her cup, Sue came back to find Moni typing something on a computer.

"Here it is, hon."

Moni glanced gratefully at the woman, before going back to the difficult task of setting a virtual bomb that would send ripples throughout the world wide web.

"This is for you, Pete." She said, and typed away.


	16. Rossi speaks his mind

_**Chapter 16: Rossi speaks his mind**_

Rossi entered the precinct in a hurry, heading directly to the interrogation room where he knew Prentiss was waiting for him. In his haste, he nearly ran right into the big surly cop, who looked to be gearing up for a fight.

"What gives you the right to come into our precinct and bring slander to our officers? What type of Feds are you?"

"We're investigating a series of murders and we're just following the evidence at hand. If you don't mind, I have to-"

"I do mind!" The cop stared daggers at him.

"Bill, stop!" Chief Patterson called from his office door. The cop huffed like a bull, but gave way to his commanding officer's demand. Rossi, noticing the senior officer calling him to his inner sanctum, gladly side stepped the red faced cop- not before sending him an irritated glance.

Chief Patterson closed the door and immediately turned on Rossi. "What do you think you are doing, sowing division between my officers? First you come acting like you are the owners of the place, -"

"We were called to help in a murder investigation,-"

"Then you arrest one of my officers-"

"Who happens to be a rapist and who attacked our only witness-"

"And now your agent detains one of my dispatch officers just because he was doing his job. What the hell!"

"I'm not yet aware of the crime your dispatch officer has committed, however I can assure you that if Prentiss detained him, she is certain he is guilty of some kind of crime. Regarding your other officers that you've mentioned, they are sad examples of abuse of authority and power. We were _invited _to investigate these crimes, and what we've found so far has blatantly pointed to misuse of police force, corruption, and total lack of humanity."

"How dare you-"

"Come on, your officer _raped _a witness, who came to us seeking protection from a killer who is still out _there__," _Rossi pointed tothe window, indicating the city below, _"_and the other two officers by the door did nothing to stop him. Are these the type of police officers you are putting out there, in the streets? It's no surprise that Moni prefers to take her chances on her own, instead of seeking us out again. We failed her the first time, so she can't put her trust in us to protect her. After all, _she's just a thief_."

"But that's what she is. A thief."

"Dammit, she's a _human being_!" Rossi shouted, finally loosing his cool with all the harebrained officers.

"She's a scared young woman who has been brutalized and the only support system she has ever had was ripped out from under her. And now she has to rely on her own wits to keep herself alive, as she is not sure she can trust us, thanks to the actions of your officers. So, Chief Patterson, I suggest you to keep your officers on a tight leash because if we find any other signs of corruption or abuse in your precinct, you don't have to worry about your officers, as they _won't_ be _your _officers anymore."

Rossi took a step towards the door, staring down yet another red faced officer. The Chief's eyes were filled with hatred and defiance.

"Try me, Chief Patterson. Just try me."

Rossi stalked out of the room, struggling with the urge to close the door violently. Instead he continued towards the interrogation room where Prentiss was with their little rat.


	17. Hospital chat

_**Chapter 17: Hospital chat**_

Moni walked in hurried steps towards the entrance of the Saint Cross Mercy Hospital, worriedly watching the coming and going of doctors and nurses in the entrance of the busy hospital.

She waited until an ambulance arrived, lights blaring. The EMTs and doctors almost stepped over each other to get to the patient, a little boy who had been in a car accident.

Moni gulped, fixed her gaze on the floor and used the sudden of influx of people to enter the hospital unnoticed. She was careful not to glance at the blood covered clothes of the doctors or to the bleeding child on the stretcher. Once in the middle of the ER waiting area, she took one of the corridors, following two young snickering nurses towards the day rest area.

She notices when they enter the employee's only area, taking notice of the place's security weak spots.

She smiled as she starts to plan.

It's time to become invisible again.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

"JJ, any news?" Hotch looked at his agent, who has just disconnected the phone after a long chat with Prentiss.

"Prentiss told me that with a little push the officer confessed. He had been given orders to report every and all our steps to a very specific police unit. According to the logs, that police unit has been under repairs for the last six months."

Hotch frowned at that info, "And nobody questioned those orders? Who gave the orders for that?"

"Officer Dresdner, he was one of the first at the scene of the first murder and he was one of those who opposed to us coming to investigate the murders."

"Where's he?"

"Nowhere to be found since yesterday. He failed to report to duty this morning."

"He's our guy, I want his arrest as soon as possible. Tell Prentiss and Rossi to investigate each and everyone who has ever worked with Dresdner, and I need you to stay here at the hospital with Morgan."

"Why?" JJ studied Hotch's face. She didn't like what she saw. He was looking at the police officers standing on the corridor leading to the ER where they were operating Morgan.

"We don't know how deep this goes in the police force here in the city. Until second orders," he continued in a low voice, just for her ears, "trust no one."

"Okay."

The doctor finally came out of the restricted area, looking around, "Family of Derek Morgan."

Both JJ and Hotch approached him, eager to hear the news.

The bullet missed all vital organs, but it was still a very painful wound. They had stopped the bleeding and were transferring him to a room soon.

Both agents are relieved to hear that. It was decided that as soon as was Morgan transferred, they would both go with him.

Once he is finally settled in a private room, JJ sat by his side while Hotch tried to gather some information from Garcia over the phone about Dresdner.

JJ motioned to Hotch that she was going to get some coffee outside before standing to leave. Walking down the corridor towards the cafeteria, she passed by the police officers guarding the corridor once more before heading to the elevators.

A mix of doctors and patients exited the elevator before JJ hopped on alone. Her attention was totally focused on her IPhone as she read her e-mails so she didn't notice the small pale hand that stopped the doors from closing at the last minute.

The metallic doors opened again to reveal a young nurse, but JJ didn't take notice. The sudden jerk of the elevator however, caused her to lift her head from her device. Her eyes narrowed on the slim finger holding down the emergency button. Following the line of her arm up to her face, JJ finally took in the face of her fellow passenger. There, glaring at her inside a nurse's uniform, was the always elusive Moni.

"We need to talk."

CM CM CM CM

Hotch was still on the phone when JJ entered Morgan's room followed by a nurse, who quickly closed the door of the room behind them.

"Where's the coffee?"

"Forget the coffee," JJ said, glancing at the nurse. Hotch's eyes finally fell on the nurse and he was deeply surprised to find a very serious looking Moni in hospital drab. Her glorious hair was hidden in a tight bun under the small nurse's cap, and her id tag- introducing her as Mary Thompson- was obviously fake.

"Is he really hurt?" She asks, slowly approaching the bed where Morgan lays.

Once she sees the black Fed lying so still on the bed she freezes, and looks at Hotch with tear filled eyes.

"I'm sorry," she sniffed. She took Morgan's hand in hers, being careful not to dislodge any of the IVs connected to his veins, "I'm so sorry."

Lowering her head to her chest, she let the tears fall. It wasn't long before she felt JJ's feminine hands rubbing comforting circles into her shoulder blades.

Hotch pocketed his mobile phone and approached them, "Moni, look at me."

"It's my fault, it's all my fault."

"Moni. Look. At. Me."

She lifted her anguished eyes to Hotch, who, after some hesitation, put his big hands on her shoulders.

"It's not your fault."

"You don't understand. It is _my _fault. I've started all this. If I hadn't stolen the pen drive, Declercq would still be alive; Pete would still be alive. He," she pointed to Morgan, tied up to the machines, "would be fine, and Spence..." She can't continue, so Moni cradled her face in her hands and sobbed her heart's content.

Hotch pivots so that Moni can't see Morgan's wounded body. "It's not _your _fault. It was never your fault. It's _theirs_. _They _are the ones who are killing people," She moaned and kept sobbing, her eyes closed, "Look to me." She opens her eyes and looks at the tall agent, "It's _their _fault. You're a victim here."

She shook her head, trying to turn so she can look at Morgan, but Hotch wasn't done.

ut we need your help here. He has Reid now." She sniffed and closed her eyes, biting her lower lip trying not to moan in pain. "You have to give us the pendrive so we can finish what they've started."

"He told me to run."

JJ frowns and looks worried at the thief, who had opened her eyes and was staring at the unmoving agent.

"Who told you to run?" JJ asked.

"Spence."

JJ and Hotch looked as each other, both eager to hear what has transpired in the small electronics shop.

"What happened in there, Moni?" Hotch asked.

"The cop brought Morgan and Spence to the shop, but when I looked at the monitors Pete was already out there. I couldn't warn him as he had already sealed the room. He shot Morgan," she sobbed looking brokenhearted to the agent who had been so gentle to her when they've first met. "I thought he was dead at first. Then Spence ran to the counter and Pete tried to get his gun. But there was no time. He had no chance."

More tears escape Moni's eyes, leaving wet trails on her cheeks as she recalled the horror, "Spence told me to run. He tried to fight him but the cop shot at him. I screamed and screamed but Spence kept shouting at me, ordering me to run. I should have stayed. I should have-"

"No,"Hotch used his fingers to wipe her tears before cuffing it under her chin so she could look into his eyes.

"You did the right thing. You obeyed him."

"But he might be hurt. And it's my fault. I should have protected him."

"No, Moni. He's a grown man who also is an FBI agent. He is sworn to protect people like you. You had no obligation to protect him."

"But what if he's hurt?"

"We'll find him. I promise you that."

She looks into Hotch's eyes, and sees determination and his sincerity. Maybe Spence is right, as he and his team were trained to hunt the creeps who hurt children. But just to be sure...

"Promise?" she asks in a faint voice.

Hotch looks at her pale face, the red rimmed eyes and the silver tear tracks on her cheeks, and he finally understands why Reid risked his career and his job to have one night stand with the young woman in front of him. No man in his own mind would deny this girl anything if she begged him with those big caramel eyes looking at him full of trust and hurt.

He takes a step towards her and opens his arms, and she sobs as she accepted his invitation and hugs him, her slim arms wrapping around his waist as she cries brokenheartedly against his chest. He closes his eyes and thinks about the old hacker, who had fiercely protected her her whole life and died trying to protect his agents.

"I promise, okay? But you have to give us the pendrive."

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because if I give it to you, what guarantee I have that you will be able to do anything about it?" She sniffs and shows her very stubborn streak, staring at Hotch with red eyes as she struggles to make him understand her point of view.

"No, I won't give it to you. It's too dangerous."

"You've seen what's in there."

JJ is watching Moni's face carefully and notices a very haunted look on her face, before she looks stubbornly at Hotch and nods.

"Moni, you have to give it to us."

"No, _they _will kill you for it. Everyone who looks into what's in the pen drive dies. So no."

"Moni, I'm ordering you, give me the pendrive." Hotch's patience is running out, but Moni is not changing her mind.

"No, Hotch. I can't. It's not that I don't trust in you. I do. Because Spence said that you care. But I don't trust _them_." She glances to the door of the room, where they knew there was a cop guarding the corridor.

"Moni, we know that police officers are involved in whatever is happening here. But we need something against them, so we can finish this."

"So I'll finish this. But I also won't show what's in there to you. Because everything you know the minute you know _they _know. So no. And if you die, who will save Spence? No, I won't take that chance."

"So what do you think you will do with that?"

"We'll exchange it for Spence. Just tell them that you have it and tell them that you will give it to them for Spence."

"But how will we contact them?"

"You don't have to contact them. They will contact you."

She walks to Hotch and takes his phone of his pocket, offering it open to him.

"Just call in and tell them that you have me in custody. They will call you as soon as word gets out to ask for an exchange, which you will agree."

"No I won't."

"Hotch, you have to. It's Spence's only hope. You have to get Spence's back. You need Spence to finish this."

Hotch stares at Moni, whose tears had dried and now was looking seriously at him, stubbornly giving him orders and refusing to give him the pendrive. Why did they need Spence to finish this?

"Moni, you're not making any sense."

"Hotch, make the call."


	18. Exchange

_**Chapter 18: **__**Exchange**_

Just five minutes after Hotch called in Prentiss and Rossi to inform them that they had Moni in custody, his phone rang. A distorted voice on the other line ordered Hotch to bring the pendrive at eight pm to Graceland cemetery, or the young agent would pay dearly. Hotch glanced at Moni, who nodded her acceptance. Very unhappy with being at a disadvantage, Hotch negotiated the terms of the exchange.

One of the oldest cemeteries in the area, dating back to 1902, Graceland sat surrounded by a heavily wooded area, following the sinuous path of the river. They agreed to meet at the last section of the cemetery: Willow Wood, properly named due to the willow trees that hung like mist, shading the quiet residents from any outsiders.

Hotch left JJ with Morgan, while he drove Moni to the precinct to get ready for the exchange. Once they arrived there, the atmosphere was downright chilly.

Hotch gritted his teeth and ignored the unfriendly stares at the police officers who crossed their path as he led Moni by her arm to the room where Rossi and Prentiss were waiting for them.

Rossi immediately went to Moni's side as Hotch made sure the door was closed on no unwanted ears were listening in.

"How are you dealing with all of this, Moni?" Rossi asked in a way that reminded Moni of the father figure she no longer had.

"Within the circumstances, I'm okay I guess."

"Are you hurt in any way?" Rossi looked her up and down. Besides some dirt on her jeans and a very wild look in her eyes, she looked to be unharmed.

"I'm not bleeding anywhere, if that's what you're asking."

At that, she went over to take a seat at the conference table. Her eyes fell to the dark wood as her fingers traced aimlessly over the polished surface.

"Do what you have to do, but know that I'll make the exchange when the time comes."

Hotch gave the back of Moni's head a stern look before going over to take a seat next to her. "Moni, we've talked about it before, I'm doing the exchange. It's my agent out there. So I'm doing it."

"No, Hotch. I'll do it."

"Moni, -"

"Just hear me out, okay." Her fingers stilled and her shoulders straightened. Play time was over, "I need to know that you will take Reid out of there safe and sound. Because when push comes to shove, you will have to run out of there as fast as possible. If they even suspect you know what I know, they will kill you on the spot. And they will kill Reid too."

"It doesn't have to be that way. Just give us the pendrive and-"

"No."

"Moni."

"No."

"I'm ordering you to-"

She was on her feet before he could finish his sentence, "You can't order me around like one of your agents! I'm not a Fed, Hotch!

"I'm a thief." Her voice lowered as her body slumped with the weight of the truth," Don't think that just because you are a Fed they won't hurt you. They will. My only trump card in this game is my knowledge, as long as I have it I'll stay alive. If I give it to you, my life is forfeit and there's no point of even trying to go after those who have Spence, because they will kill him in a blink of an eye- no remorse."

"Moni," Hotch growled, feeling the beginning of a headache blinking behind his eyelids.

"You have to stay alive in order to save Spence. Once we make the exchange, and all of you are safe, then you can start going after what's on the pendrive."

"If we make the exchange, they will destroy the pendrive Moni. And the only piece of evidence we have to connect everything that has happened is what's on there. If we go through with this, the evidence to put these bastards in jail will be gone."

"Hotch, please, you have to trust me."

"I don't like this. I don't like it at all."

"You don't have to like it. You just have to get Spence safely out of there."

He couldn't help but smile at her stubborness, "Reid would never forgive me if anything happened to you and it was in my power to stop it."

She smiled thinly back at him, "He's not here, is he? Besides, this is much bigger than what you may have imagined. It goes far beyond this city, this state. I can't let them take you out, because you will be needed later on."

"Moni, tells us what is on that pendrive," Rossi implored, but Moni shook her head sadly.

"They will kill you for that information. That's a risk I'm not willing to take."

CM CM CM CM

Chief Patterson's offer to have some of his officers serve as backup on the exchange earned a flat out refusal from Hotch, and secured Hotch's place on the Police Chief's bad side.

"I don't see the point of you all going in there without some backup." He added,"You're already two men short."

"I don't know exactly how deep corruption runs in your precinct, Chief, but until we end this investigation, nobody is above suspicion."

Patterson glared at him, then looked through the office's glass windows, frowning as he saw Moni speaking privately with Rossi and Prentiss.

"You don't trust my officers but you trust that-"

"She's the only one who knows where the pendrive is. She is willing to guide us to where she hid it so we can exchange it for our agent."

"What's on that thing that has so many people being murdered for it?"

Patterson's eyes sparked with curiosity and, for once, no malice. He really was just trying to fish for information, Hotch realized. Because he wanted to know, and not for any hidden reason. At least none that Hotch could see.

"We don't know. She didn't tell us."

"She didn't?" That was a shock, Patterson thought. "I thought she would have told you already."

"Told us what?"

"What's on there. That's the only reason why you would trust her so much, right," Patterson scratched his dimming hairline and, for the first time, Hotch could see the fatigue lines around his mouth and eyes as he slumped back in his chair.

"What a mess, I don't know what to say to you, Agent Hotchner. I can't believe I didn't see what was happening in my precinct. Carlton, the officer who you arrested for attacking her and … ah.. raping her, we went to the academy together. I went to his cell the other day. You know, he just shrugged when I asked him why he did this. Dresdner, the cop you are looking for, he's been under my command since he was a probie, fresh out of the academy. I don't know what to say. I don't know what to think."

Patterson sighed, glancing at the agents outside. Moni's eyes firmly settled on his, hers filled with accusation and hurt.

"I don't like that you don't trust us to do our job anymore, but I really don't blame you. Looking at us from your side, we must be a bunch of corrupt lazy cops who can't do anything right."

"Then do something for me" Hotch waited until he was sure he had the Chief's full attention ,"Not for me, but for your own precinct. Find out what Carlton knows. He didn't say anything to Rossi when he was interrogated, but he knows what's on the pendrive. He obviously knows, otherwise he wouldn't have attacked her so blatantly and still expected to walk away unscathed."

"He knows?"

"Ah, yes he does."

Patterson stood up from his chair, tucking his uniform shirt back into his trousers- pulling them up to accommodate his rotund figure, "Do your thing, agent Hotchner. I have an interrogation to do."

With renewed purpose, Chief Patterson left his office, followed by Hotch.

Moni visibly tensed when the Police Chief exited his office and headed straight for her. She was poised to run until Rossi's hand landed on her shoulder, holding her in place. He obviously sensed Moni's fear sky rocketing. She released a deep exhale and clenched her fists at her side.

_Be strong, Moni. _

She looked back at Rossi, who gave her a small nod of encouragement. Feeling secure that they wouldn't let any harm come to her just yet, she turned her hard gaze to Chief Patterson as he came to a stop in front of the small group.

"Kid, ah...your name is Law, isn't it?"

She folded her arms in front of herself. The action combined with the cold stare told Patterson that a simple apology wouldn't go far with her- not one from him at least.

"She prefers Moni," Prentiss offered.

"Moni, ah... I'm sorry for what my men did to you. They will be punished to the fullest extent of the law." He glanced back at Hotch, who nodded indicating that he should continue, "ah... and we'll find this killer. The FBI will arrest him for his crimes, but I'm sorry for your loss."

She kept on glaring at him, not moving a muscle. Time seemed to settle in for a light rest and the Chief soon began to fidget under her intense stare.

"You don't have to apologize to me." She finally said, "Apologize to Pete. He is the one who is in the morgue, dead, after being shot trying to protect two Feds and me. Apologize to Declercq, who was killed as if he were a rabid dog. His throat cut so he couldn't voice his pain as that bastard beat his chest in until his ribs snapped."

Though her voice quivered and she could barely see the man in front of her for the tears blurring her sight, Moni felt stronger than she had in a long time. Her anger gave way to courage, more than she knew what to do with, "apologize to Declercq, a sick man who couldn't defend himself due to his Alzheimer. A prisoner in his own mind and body, and still your man killed him."

"Moni," Hotch hissed in warning, noticing the looks from the other cops in the precinct.

"Don't apologize to me, as I'm nothing in the grand scheme of things. But be aware of something: if Spencer is hurt, in any way, I'll hunt you down - you and your piggies. There's no place you can hide, because I'll will find you, and I'll be the worst nightmare you ever had."

"Moni, enough," Rossi turned her away from her one woman showdown.

Patterson studied the young woman in front of him, astonished at her fervor while talking about the missing Fed.

"You really care about him, don't you?"

Upon hearing the Chief's question, she tried to keep her composure - keep the anger burning - but just the thought of Spencer brought tears to her eyes.

"He saw me when I was invisible."


	19. A visit to the cemetery

_**Chapter 19: **__**A visit to the cemetery**_

Since they were down two men, it was agreed that Prentiss would stand guard at the road leading to Willow Wood while Moni and Hotch drove down to the meeting point. Rossi traipsed through the woods, trying to find a good position that overlooked the area where the exchange was going to happen.

Moni twiddled her fingers in her lap as their SUV crawled down the road.

Hotch, noticing her defeated disposition, spoke,"You know what to do. We'll pretend we'll exchange the pendrive for Reid. Before the exchange is done, we will arrest him. Rossi will come for him and this whole nightmare will be over."

"Uhm hum."

Hotched drummed his fingers anxiously on the steering wheel. The tension felt like a weight pressing down on him. He didn't want to think about what would happen if this didn't go as planned, but he had to ask. "Moni, you do have the pendrive with you, don't you?"

"Uhm hum."

"Moni?"

"Uhm?"

"Where's the pendrive?"

"It's somewhere safe."

Hotch slammed on the breaks, and Moni threw her hands out to keep from slamming into the dash board.

"Damnit Moni, it's Reid's life we're talking about! We can't go to the meeting point without what they want. They will _kill_ Reid!"

"No, they won't."

Hotch gritted his teeth, feeling he was close to loosing it, "Moni-"

"I'll go with them to the place where I hid the pendrive. You will get Reid and leave this place."

"I don't agree with that."

"It's too late to change your mind now, Hotch." She pointed ahead, down the hill, where a black sedan was parked under a lonely tree at the end of the path. The car signaled with its lights, and Hotch groaned in frustration.

Putting the car into movement again, they slowly slid down the last few yards toward the parked car.

They park a good distance away. Moni sat up straight in her seat, ignoring Hotch's burning stare. They both sucked in a sharp breath as Dresdner pushed Reid out of the car. His revolver was aimed directly at the back of the young agent's head. Hotch got out of the car, looking back at Moni who she sat frozen in her seat.

"Do you want this kid back or not, Agent Hotchner?" Dresdner yelled.

Hotch turned around and closed the distance between them while quickly surveying Reid's body for any serious injuries. There was a bruise on his face, a cut on his left eyebrow and there was some blood on his shirt cuffs, but his eyes were alert and frantically darting between Hotch to the figure sitting on the passenger seat. Reid fingers flexed, drawing Hotch's eyes to the handcuffs around his wrist, which looked like they were ready to bleed from the tight binds.

"Where's the pendrive?"

"There was a slight change of plans," Hotch muttered, trying to translate the urgent message that Reid was sending him with his eyes.

Moni slowly got out of the car, keeping the door open in front of her body as her and Reid's eyes locked for a long moment.

"What's she doing here?" Dresdner glared at the young thief.

"I'm going to take you to where I've hidden the pendrive. I didn't trust the Fed to do what has to be done, so I came myself."

"That wasn't the deal," Dresdner growled and pressed the gun into Reid's side, bringing a hiss from the agent.

"That's the only deal you will have," she closed the door of the car violently, and started walking towards them.

"Moni," Hotch tried to stop her, but she moved her arm out of his reach and kept walking towards the corrupt cop and Reid.

"Once we're gone to get the pendrive, you get Reid and leave, Hotch."

"Moni, what are you doing?" Reid asked when she stopped just five steps away from them.

"I'm doing the right thing," she looked to Dresdner, "let him go. I'm the only one who knows where the pendrive is. I don't trust them to keep their yaps shut and they probably would only deceive you, giving you a decoy in its place."

"Moni," Hotch growled, wondering where the hell Rossi was.

"If you take me, there won't be any cops coming after you. After all, I'm just a thief. The same thing can't be said if you take a Fed. There will be road blocks from here all the way to China."

"Moni, don't do this." Reid grimaced when Dresdner squeezed his arm. He moaned in pain, but still his eyes pleaded with Moni to change her mind.

"Let him go."

"You will come with me and take me to the pendrive?"

"Sure."

"I'll kill you after that."

"Okay."

"You're okay with this?"

"I'm already dead, ain't I? I've been dead since I stole that pendrive. I just wasn't aware of it yet. You've killed everyone that meant something to me, so... I don't care anymore."

"Moni, please..." Reid pleaded.

"Let him go."

Dresdner pointed the gun at her, moving slightly so she might get closer to him and Reid.

When she was just two steps away, she finally felt brave enough to look into Reid's face. She almost cried when she saw what this was doing to him. He looked at her with his deep caring eyes, worried about her, Moni, the thief. She almost gave up on her plans, but then Dresdner spoke and she hardened her heart,"Come closer."

"Moni, why are you doing this?"

"It's okay, Spencer." She spoke calmly. Dresdner pushed Reid away, freeing him, grabbing Moni's arm instead. The gun was now aimed at her head.

Hotch immediately drew his gun, "Drop your weapon, Dresdner!"

"Never! Are you really going to shoot me when I can shoot her and your agent point blank?"

Despite Dresdner's threat, Reid doesn't move. For the first time in Spencer's life, his mind was completely blank. There were no plans, no strategies, now, when it mattered the most. He couldn't just let her go.

"Moni-"

"Go, Spence. You have to live to save the children."

"What children?"

"Promise me, Spencer."

"Okay, I promise you. But, don't—"

"Now go, and don't look back. Hotch is waiting for you over there."

She pointed to where the Hotch was, watching the standoff with his gun drawn.

"No."

"Spence, please."

"I don't want to leave you with him."

"Spence, go."

"Aw, so romantic," Dresdner slid the nuzzle of the gun under Moni's chin. She lifted her head and closed her eyes,"the thief with the Federal Agent? Why don't you try a cop, baby?"

Moni cringed as he pulled her back against his body. Reid stepped forward, intent on making him pay for putting his filthy hands on her, but he stopped when Dresdner's gun jabbed him in the chest.

"You're free to go, Fed." He nudged him in the chest again for emphasis," Now go to your master, puppy."

Reid stared into her eyes, his heart doing somersaults while his brain screamed at him to not leave her alone with this killer. But he could see that she had made up her mind, so he turned his back and forced himself to take one heavy step after the other- away from her.

"Wait!" Moni shouted, making him turn back to her.

She looked at Dresdner, pleading with him, "may I just say a proper goodbye?"

Dresdner smiled a lascive smile and shrugged.

"Moni, I-"

Reid took one step towards her and was silenced by her lips. She jumped in his arms and used his ears as levers, lowering his mouth to hers as she poured all her love and desperation into the brief touch.

Spencer moaned into her mouth, feeling his eyes roll in his head. He wrapped his arms around her, despite the handcuffs biting his wrists, bringing her against his chest, and attacking her lips again and again.

Hotch respectfully looked away from the two youngsters, but Dresdner just snickered at them. When he decides that they've had enough, he poked her in her back with his gun.

"Enough, we have places to be."

"Moni, I-"

"Save the children, Spence," she whispered against his cheek, just for his ears.

"Moni-"

"Save the children, Spence," one wayward tear escaped from her eyes, leaving a silver track on her face.

She walked out of his arms, and Dresdner- with a heavy hand on her shoulder- guided her to the car.

Reid struggled to stay put, watching her grimace as Dresdner pressed the gun into her ribs. It felt almost as if his flesh was being torn apart, being separated from her.

"Let her go, Dresden," Hotch shouted, "You are not going anywhere."

"We are going for a ride, Agent Hotchner, and if you don't want to see her brains splattered on the ground, you will let us leave."

He pushed her to the open door of the driver's seat. She docilely followed him, her gaze never wavering from Reid's.

Reid's felt his body rebel against his mind. Logically, he knew that if Moni got in that car she would never come back. Dresdner would kill her once he had what he wanted. She would never come back to him.

"Moni!"

She froze, turned, and smiled softly at him, exactly as she did the first and only time they were together.

"Why?" he moaned, trying to figure out why she would sacrifice herself for him.

"You really don't know?"

"No," he gulped, "I don't."

She shook her head, disappointed at his short-sightedness, "Reid, your work is important. You save people like me from monsters like him. You don't let children get hurt and, if they are hurt, you make the hurt go away."

Reid's heart constricted when hearing her explaining in such simple terms the importance of his job. His thought about how much she had been hurt her whole life, wishing only for someone, anyone, to interfere and make the hurt go away.

"And that's why I love you," she said in a soft voice. Everyone pauses and time seems to stand still as they take in the admission.

"I've loved you from the moment I met you," She goes on as if she is talking about the weather, or the color of the sky, "But I've always known it was not meant to be, so it's okay now."

There was only silence now in the dreary graveyard. For the second time that day, Reid's mind was at a lost. His mouth opened and closed, trying and failing at formulating a response.

Dresdner chuckle broke the silence,"Pity I'll have to kill her, lover boy."

"Stop it!" Reid growled.

Dresdner pushed the gun into Moni back, making her grimace and sending a message to Reid: don't get any ideas.

"Now I have to go, but remember what you promised to me," Moni whispers, before nodding to her captor and being dragged off to the car. Once situated- Moni in the driver's seat and Dresdner in the passenger's- they were on their way out of the graveyard.

Reid stood, helpless, while Hotch radioed in.

"Rossi, come in." He received no answer.

"Prentiss, come in!" Hotch tried the other profiler, receiving only the glaring silence again.

"Hotch, she-" Reid watched the tail lights as the car with Dresdner and Moni goes up the hill towards the exit of the cemetery.

"I know, we have to find Rossi and Prentiss. Something has happened to them."


	20. New York State Thruway I87

_**Chapter 20: New York State Thruway I-87**_

Moni checked her seatbelt again before changing gears. She looked in the rearview mirror and indeed, no black SUV was following them as they left the Graceland Cemetery and entered Delaware Avenue.

"I really hope you didn't kill the other FBI agents. They would be very pissed if you killed one Fed, much less several of them.

Dresdner chuckled, his gun not wavering from her, "Nah, some buddies of mine were just waiting for them to come. They were ordered to just incapacitate, not kill."

"Where are we going?" He asked when he noticed that she was driving toward the freeway.

"Declercq had a small cabin at exit 25 of I-87, just beside Fort Hunter Park. We have some miles ahead of us."

She checked the rear view again, and speeded up to enter the tool road.

Dresdner studied the thief. She was too calm for someone facing imminent death.

She sighed loudly and checked her seatbelt again to make sure it was firmly in place, before changing lanes on the freeway and taking the faster route on the left.

"You are too calm for someone about to die."

"When someone has nothing to loose, we kind of rearrange our priorities."

She offered him a tiny smile, and began humming as she sped down the freeway.

"You are crazy, you know that? I have a gun and I will use it if necessary."

"I know. I also know that you will kill me as soon as you have the pendrive."

"Yes, I will."

"But you don't understand one thing." She said, smiling at him, despite the fact that he had a gun pointed at her.

"My genius boyfriend has a gun too. He will figure it out and when he does, your bosses will be in a lot of trouble."

"He won't ever figure it out, he doesn't know what's in it and he won't ever find out."

She steps harder in the gas pedal, pushing the speedometer to 90mph.

"Besides, you forgot something." Dresdner looked back, smiling when he doesn't find any police cars following them.

"No, I didn't."

"Yes, you did."

"No, I… Ok, what do you think I've forgotten?"

Holding onto the steering wheel firmly and smiling at the next exit coming up, she stepped harder on the gas pedal. The car groaned under the speed she was driving.

"I have a gun too."

She glanced at him, smiling. His eyes became comically wide as he realized what she had said, but it was to late to react. Moni violently twisted the steering wheel to the right, leading the speeding car into the cement guardrail.

Dresdner screams were cut short as the car hit the guardrail and was catapulted into the air. The airbag slammed into Moni's face, causing her vision to blur. Completely disoriented, she blacked out just as the car went sailing through the air. Dredner's body bounded back and forth with each flip of the car as it made its way back to the asphalt. They crashed into a pile of contorted metal, sending Dresdner body through the windshield.

He was dead before he hit the ground.

Moni's unconscious form dangled in the car as it slid several yards, on its roof, finally coming to a stop on the roadside.


	21. Live to fight another day

_**Chapter 21: Live to fight another day**_

Hotch unlocked Reid's handcuffs and both agents ran to the woods where Rossi was suppose to be hiding. They found him unconscious, a bump on his head and his hands cuffed.

"I didn't see his face. The bastard hit me from behind." Rossi explained after he came around.

"We have to find Prentiss." Hotch yelled over his shoulder at Rossi and Reid, heading back to the car.

Hotch drove with Rossi and Reid to Prentiss' look out position, only to find that she too had been blind sided, handcuffed, and her mouth duct taped. Hotch yanked the driver's side door open while Reid grabbed the keys to the handcuffs, which had been thrown to the ground outside the passenger's door. Prentiss moaned urgently at them as they rushed to free her.

"He took Moni," she said as soon as they removed the tape.

"We know. Any idea of the direction they went?"

"No, but they left the cemetery in a hurry."

Hotch grabbed his phone from his suit jacket and immediately called the police department, informing them of what had happened.

"Patterson says Carlton has clamped up. But he did mentioned something about some kids." Hotch informed the team after he hung up the phone.

"Kids?" Reid was promptly at attention.

"Does that mean something to you, Reid?"

"Yes, oh my God, Moni mentioned them too."

"When?"

"Ah, when she kissed me the last time- before he took her. She said -no, actually, she begged me- to save the children. That I had to save the children."

"She said that we would need you to finish this. That she wouldn't tell us what was on the pendrive because they would kill us for it, but we would need you to finish this."

"We need to find her. If there are kids involved in this, we don't have time to waste"

Hotch's phone rang again as they all loaded into Prentiss' SUV. He took the driver's seat, answering his phone with one hand while the other shoved the keys into the ignition. Then he froze.

"Are you sure?" He exhaled heavily, wondering if it were possible for this day to get any worse.

"When did it happen?"

"We're on our way."

He ended the call and took another deep breath before turning to Reid in the back seat.

Reid didn't like the sympathetic looks everyone in the car was giving him at the moment. He didn't like that they all knew something important and he didn't. Most of all, he didn't like the tendrils of panic that were beginning to wrap around his chest.

"What's happened?"

"Reid, you have to stay calm."

"Hotch, what's happened."

"Reid, please-"

"NO! Tell me. What. Happened."

Hotch sighed.

"There's been an accident."

CM CM CM CM CM CM

The streets surrounding the accident were already blocked off by police cruisers, allowing only emergency personnel through. Hotch flashed his badge to one of the positioned officers and followed a wailing ambulance towards the scene.

The team look on with horrified faces at the car- or what was left of it- that they had just seen Moni drive away in not fifteen minutes before.

There were firefighters and EMTs struggling to cut through the mangled metal on what looked to be the driver's side; the hissing of the _jaws of life_ drowned out all other noises.

The agents jump out of the SUV and rush toward the working firefighters. Glass and shards of metal crunched under the feet. The ground became more littered with the evidence of the horrible scene the closer they got to the car. The air smelled of burnt rubber and smoke.

A firefighter, noticing the distressed look on the agents' faces, stopped them before they could make it to Moni's car.

"Sorry, sir, only paramedics authorized from here on."

"But we know her." Hotch explained.

"MONI!" Reid tried to get a glimpse of the activity near the car, but the sheer number of paramedics hid her from his view.

"You know her?" The firefighter turned to Reid.

"Yes."

"Crazy woman. She's lucky the death toll wasn't higher. It's a miracle she didn't hit any other cars during her stunt."

Although Rossi noticed Reid flinch at the firefighter's words, he asked anyway.

"Death toll?"

"Yeah, the passenger was thrown out of the car- died on impact. The driver has been stabilized, but we're working on getting her out of the car."

After some insistence and showing of badges, the agents rushed to the mangled steel and rubber right when the workers were taking Moni out of the car. Her face was bruised from the impact of the airbag, her neck was immobilized, and still there were too many bruises and too much blood to give them a positive assessment of her condition.

Reid reached her side just as the paramedics started guiding the stretcher towards the ambulance. He almost cried when he saw the amount of blood covering her.

_At least she's unconscious,_ Reid thought offhandedly. If she saw that much blood, she would get sick, for sure. His overwhelming happiness over her being okay made him slap happy. He probably would have laughed if Moni hadn't frowned and opened her big caramel eyes at that very moment.

"Moni."

"Spence, is he dead?"

Prentiss looked over to where the doctors were zipping up Dresdner's body in a body bag a few yards away.

"Yes, he's dead." she answered for Reid, who was holding Moni's scratched hand carefully in his.

They were both surprised at the satisfied Moni smile that broke across Moni's face.

"Good." She closed her eyes then moaned in pain as one of the paramedics examined her bruised legs.

"You'll be fine, you'll see."

"The children, save the children," she said in a low voice, pain lacing each word.

"What children, Moni? Where are they?"

She started crying, "you promised, Reid."

Hotch, sensing Reid's duress, approached Moni, "Moni"

"Hotch, you gotta show him."

"Moni, where's the pendrive?"

"Car keys."

"What?"

"The pendrive." she hissed, batting the paramedics hand away, "your car keys. It's in there."

"We have to move her." The paramedics had already opened the doors of the ambulance and they were just waiting for the FBI agents to move out of their way.

"My car keys? The pendrive is in my car keys?"

She giggled lightly though blood trickled from the corner of her mouth, making her cough.

"Cool, isn't it? You had it this whole time."

The FBI agents took a step back as the paramedics move her into the ambulance. Though Reid doesn't voice his request, his glance towards the ambulance is desperate enough for Hotch to understand the message.

"Go with them. We'll keep you posted."

"Thanks Hotch." He hopped in the ambulance, immediately sitting where he can hold Moni's hand and not be in the EMT's way.

The doors closed and the ambulance sped away into the night.

Hotch waited only a moment before he turned and ran towards his own SUV. He flung the door open and grabbed the keys from the ignition. He sighed aloud as he turned to the other two agents, and held up the keychain.

Indeed, right beside the electric key of the SUV, was a tiny pendrive.

"It was with us this whole time." Rossi shook his head at the simplicity and utter intelligence of it all.

"She must have slipped it onto your keychain sometime today," says Prentiss.

"When I asked her where the pendrive was, she told me it was somewhere safe. I just never imagined that she meant with me." Hotch said, toying with the tiny pendrive in his fingers.

"We have to go to the precinct to check its contents," Prentiss said at the exact moment Hotch's phone rang.

"Hotch, listen to me. We have a problem." Garcia spoke, almost hysterical, on the phone.

"Talk to me, Garcia."

"I swear I didn't know. When I saw Moni's e-mail, I thought it was some kind of message she wanted delivered to you, so I clicked it. I didn't know it was a virus."

Rossi - noticing Hotch's expression - silently asked him what was going on. Hotch put Garcia on speakerphone so Rossi and Prentiss could hear.

"A what?"

"A virus, Hotch. And that's not the only thing." Garcia turned to her plasma screens, all showing a slide show of several pictures.

"Once I clicked on it, it automatically froze not only my terminals, but all other terminals connected to mine."

"Garcia, what are talking about?" Rossi asked, although he was sure it was bad. Really bad.

"The whole bureau has been infected by it. There was an embedded link on it; once clicked, it started the slide show. It's been displayed for the last five minutes in all the stations here in Quantico and, as far as I was informed, at the Hoover as well."

"Can't you stop it?" Prentiss asked.

"There's a team of computer experts trying to stop it, but it's an insidious program- much beyond anything I expected to see done by her. Its programming reminds me a little of Drake's coding. But that's not the problem. They are not going to stop the virus. They are going to let it run its course."

"Why not?"

"The pictures, Hotch, all the pictures that were on the pendrive were used by Moni to create a slide show. Apparently, she figured out she wouldn't be able to give it back to you, so she created a virus to make sure that every single FBI agent on the East Coast could see it and take action."

Garcia tried to control her voice, despite her tears, as she stared at her plasma screens.

"They are children, Hotch, they are only children. And they took pictures of them being raped over and over again, and Moni identified every single adult in those images."


	22. Rippling effects

_**Rippling effects**_

It was a tsunami of never seen proportions. In the ten seconds that it took Garcia to figure out it was a virus Moni's message had already blocked her computer and taken over the whole network of computers of the Bureau, splashing a blinking message on the screen.

_Read me to know the truth._

Those that ignored warnings of the FBI's computer geeks and clicked on the message were horrified with the graphic pictures.

Moni, in her eagerness to be done, added small comments and arrows, as well as brief bio of each criminal. She also included pictures of them at local society events.

_~ This is Alexander Campbell. He's the Mayor's brother-in-law in Albany. He studied Law in Yale. He's a creep. He likes little girls as seen in the pictures 5, 6 and 7. That's his picture during a dinner at the Mayor's house._

_~ This is Crawford Blake. He's the Commissioner's cousin. He works in the Water Control and Development Department of the Mayor's office in Albany. He studied Government Planning at Duke University. He also likes little girls as seen in pictures 8, 9 and 10. That's his picture with Mr. Campbell having a barbecue at the Mayor's house. He's also a creep._

And the list when on and on, with Moni naming each and every person in the pictures, being candid but straightforward with her descriptions.

_~ Mr. Marshall. Creep._

_~ Mr. Winston. Also a creep. _

_~ Mr. Paskett. Double Creep._

Once informed about the contents of the viral message, other agents clicked on the link. Soon the information was spread so far that it was hard to find one person walking the corridors of Hoover or Quantico who was unaware of what had happened.

That's when the telephones started to ring.

Apparently, Moni had sent the same viral message to reporters from CNN.

The shit had officially hit the fan.


	23. Au revoir, mon cher

_**Chapter 23: Au revoir, mon cher**_

Some hours later, Rossi walked into the waiting room area of the ER and found Reid sitting, staring at his own blood covered hands. He opened and closed them, staring at his fingers as if seeing them for the first time.

Rossi slid a plastic chair up beside him, sighing loudly. Reid didn't acknowledge his presence.

"Any news?"

Reid rubbed his hands together, and stretched his long legs out before him.

"She's still in surgery. That's all I know."

"She is a brave girl."

"Why did she do that? Why did she-" Reid's voice cracked and tears pooled in his eyes as he remembered her broken body being taken out of the remains of the car.

Rossi bit his lower lip seeing the misery Reid was in, and he loathed to be the one who brought him more bad news.

"She knew exactly what she was doing, Reid."

Reid turns his head to stare at Rossi.

"Are you telling me that she did this on purpose? That she planned all this?" Reid couldn't help the incredulity in his voice. "She's not suicidal. This is insane."

Rossi let the pity he felt for his teammate wash over him for a second before he straightened in his chair and handed Reid a small netbook. At Reid's confused expression, Rossi explained.

"Moni's virus was designed not only to expose the criminals who were planning her death, but it was also designed to say goodbye."

"How..."

Rossi opened the netbook and hit play, showing the last slides of the presentation. They were only black backgrounds with white letters. Each slide contained a sentence that made the message much more poignant with their simplicity. The powerful words rang with a finality that was very Moni.

_Who am I? _

_Wrong question._

_I'm nobody. _

_ I was one of those kids once._

_I'm dead now. _

_I was just a ... _

_...thief."_

Reid stared at the last slide, feeling a pain that he had never felt before blossoming in his chest. It was then that he realized what she had done to save his life, to save the children.

Children who, like her, had been terribly abused and had no one to run to, no one to protect them. Their voices had always gone unheard.

Street kids abandoned to their own fate, orphans abused by uncaring families, children born into prostitution as their mothers were also prostitutes or drug addicts. Those who had been sold into a slave industry which was constantly feeding the sex industry, silently working beneath the civilized world.

Reid sniffled and leaned forward, his grip on the netbook becoming slack as his eyes clouded with tears. Rossi silently took the computer out of his hands and placed a hand on his shoulder, as Reid started sobbing over innocence brutally stolen and a future that would never happen.


	24. Redemption

_**Chapter 24: Redemption**_

_**Quantico**__** FBI Offices  
Two days later **_

"You've got to be kidding," Section Chief Strauss said, looking at the report on her desk.

Hotch stared at her, not blinking an eye, "I assure you, Ma'am, I'm not."

"This girl created a scandal that went all the way to Capitol Hill- exposing several important people as pedophiles, forcing resignations here and there- and you expect me to request a full pardon for her crimes? Are you out of your mind."

"I assure you that I'm in full control of my mental capacity. What I'm requesting is … reasonable, considering the circumstances."

"She's a thief!"

"She was a _victim, _as tortured and used by others as those kids who were in those pictures that she published online. She fought back with the only weapon she had, her wits. And still she was left defenseless by those who were supposed to protect her."

"So you admit you failed in protecting your witness? Your _only _witness in the case, if I might add."

"We had no idea what we were fighting against. How deep the corruption in the police department ran. Every move we made was scrutinized and reported to those who were after her. They had a mole in the dispatch room, and every time we contacted someone from our team the dispatch would send a corrupt cop in front of us. And yes, she paid the price for that."

"Still, there are going to be charges if … well, is she even going to live?

Hotch frowned at the dispassionate tone of the section chief. She was talking about someone who, in a very short time, had shown an ability to feel compassion, pain, and love far beyond anything he had ever seen from the powerful woman in front of him.

"Her condition now is... critical. That's all I know."

"I don't see a point in pursuing a pardon for her if she's not even going to live to know about it."

"That's not the point," Hotch spat through clenched teeth. His patience was running out extremely fast.

"So what is the point?"

"All charges of theft were withdrawn. Everything she had ever stolen was still in her possession and we returned them to their rightful owners. They agreed to withdraw the charges, when informed of the circumstances surrounding the thefts."

Strauss frowned at that information.

"They agreed to do that?"

"Yes. You see, her whole life she was used and manipulated by the one who she truly believed was looking after her. But she was willing to sacrifice her life to save an agent of my team. She did all the hard work of finding out who each and every one on those offenders in the pictures were. Yes, her methods were crass and maybe not the most ethical in dealing with such delicate information, but you can't deny they were efficient.

"Everyone involved- directly or indirectly- with the prostitution, human trafficking, and pedophilia rings is under arrest or is being prosecuted. Every single one of them. We were also able to rescue 62 children in different states, all who had been victims of constant abuse during the last years."

Hotch stood up, staring down at Chief Strauss with those dark piercing eyes, forcing her to look up at him.

"Thanks to her, children were saved, criminals were arrested and my agent is alive. I don't care what she did before we met her. All I know is that she was willing to die for a member of my team, and she begged him to save the children instead of her. If that doesn't deserve a full pardon, I don't know what does."


	25. Wait

a/n: I would like to say my thanks to all those who made this story my most read ever! I'm very happy you are enjoying Moni's tale and how a thief fell in love with a Fed.

Another heartbreaking chapter of this adventure.

I dedicate this chapter to Dolphinsiren, as her help with all medical info and correct terminology was essential for this chapter. THANKS!

* * *

_**Chapter 25: Wait **_

The constant beeping of the machines was not enough to cover the male voice slowly reading from the book, the words floating softly in the air as Reid turned the page to continue reading from the old edition of the Canterbury Tales, which he had found in the small hospital library.

"You see, my mom was a literature teacher, and she loved reading to me. I think I've had most of English literature read to me- from the medieval poets to the modern ones." He chuckled a little, as he remembered good times with his mother. They both would lie on the bed and she would read out loud to him, her hand playing distractedly with his hair.

He gazed at the unmoving woman on the hospital bed, only the beeping of the machines ensured him that she was still alive.

The doctors had told him that it had been touch and go. She stayed in surgery for four hours; the doctors needed time to re-inflate her lungs, as her chest cavity had filled with air and blood, due to the force of the impact- impairing lung functions.

She had some bruising on her legs and a broken arm. However, the most serious, and complicated, injury that had been addressed during surgery was her spleen.

The doctors rushed to remove her spleen- lacerated from the crash- before blood accumulated in it. Knowing the pressure of the blood could force the capsule to be torn, causing acute hemorrhaging- which imminently lead to shock and eventually death- the surgeons worked at a hectic pace.

Due to the length of the surgery and the massive amount of blood loss she had suffered, the doctors predicted that it would take twelve to twenty-four hours for Moni's body to completely metabolize all the anesthesia.

But twenty-four hours had come and gone, and she still had not awakened yet.

They were keeping her under constant watch, in order to avoid any further complications or infections. The doctors were carefully optimistic, but her situation was still listed as critical.

Reid sighed as he looked at the tubes protruding from under her hospital gown. She didn't need a mechanical ventilator, but the doctors had her connected with a pleural tube to drain the remains of air and liquid from her chest, allowing her lungs the necessary space to function.

She had a thin abdominal tube, as well as an IV giving her a unit of blood to substitute for the several lost. Parallel to the blood transfusion were injections of saline solution and glucose solution, to keep her blood pressure and kidneys functioning normally.

Reid leaned towards her, taking her small hand in his bigger one. He gently inspected the chewed nails, one of Moni's nervous tics. He rubbed his thumb over the pale skin, careful not to dislodge the small sensor of the oxymeter, clipped on the tip of her finger.

"Just wake up so I can read to you, okay?"

But she gave him no reaction.

He sighed loudly, then turned his attention back to the book. He kept reading- one hand distractedly holding hers- as Chaucer's words floated in the room, filling the empty silence of the sterile environment.


	26. New beginnings

_**Chapter 26: New beginnings**_

Hotch entered the hospital room, noticing Reid asleep. His head rested on Moni's bed, exhausted, one of his hands holding her good hand.

He then looked to the other bed and noticed his profiler in pain, before resting again at the heartbreaking picture of the couple.

Hotch silently walked to Morgan's side, immediately pressing the button to release more morphine into his system. After a few seconds, he noticed the lines of pain in Morgan's face dim.

"How long have you been awake?"

"Long enough. How long have I been out?"

"Long enough," Hotch muttered.

"What happened?" Morgan asked as he worried over what could cause Hotch to look so aggrieved.

"The pendrive that started all this...it was full of pictures of an orgy- illegal drugs, underaged prostitutes, and swing couples."

"Damn" Morgan grumbled.

"That's not all."

"Can it get worse than that?"

"Ah, it does. The female and male flesh used in the orgy were mostly that of unwilling participants. Mostly street kids or orphans bought specially for that party. The money was exchanged before each act."

"It was all carefully documented by the reporter who was the first victim of our unsub. He went undercover as a waiter and identified every single person in the party- every vile act committed by those in there- but before he could hand over his material to his editor, he was killed."

"Where does Moni come into the picture?"

Hotch sat on the edge of the bed and glanced at the unconscious woman. The nurses had taken the blood bag away, just the saline IV was running now.

"When Dresdner was ordered to retrieve the pictures and kill the journalist he didn't know that the reporter's pendrive had already been stolen, by none other than Moni. She had only glimpsed at the pictures briefly, saw that it was a beautiful house with beautiful people, and took it for herself. She had no clue of the bomb she had stolen."

"Why is she in the hospital with me now?"

"She insisted on making an exchange: the pendrive for Reid. We went to make the exchange, but we were betrayed. Besides Dresdner, there were two other corrupt cops lying in wait. She offered to take Dresdner to where she had hidden the pendrive, as long as he let us go free."

Hotch looked down at Reid, who sighed in his sleep.

"She went with him, and I could literally see Reid's heart breaking into pieces as the car drove away with her at the wheel."

"Hotch..." Morgan tried to think of something to say to ease the guilt that Hotch was so obviously feeling, but soon Hotch was speaking again.

"She crashed the car on purpose, killing Dresdner and almost succeeding in killing herself too. When we reached the scene I thought she was dead. There was so much blood everywhere."

"What about Dresdner? Was he our killer?"

"Yes, but he was just the tip of the iceberg. But when we found out, the damage was already done and the aftershocks were too widespread. Unbeknownst to us, Moni had prepared a virus to be sent at an specific hour to the FBI email accounts."

"Really? I had no idea she could program."

"Apparently, Declercq wasn't the only one trying to pass on his legacy to Moni. Garcia said that the virus had all the characteristics of something that might have been programmed by Peter Drake.

"It crashed the servers of the FBI, sending a viral message to all computers, both in Quantico and the Hoover, with a link to an external file. Until warning that the server had been infected by a virus was released, some people were actually clicking on the link. They were transferred to a very detailed account of the orgy. Moni had described and named each and every person in the pictures. All thanks to the research done by that reporter. He called them on their crimes and exposed all the underground connections belonging to several important people in New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Delaware. This went deep, Morgan, and it has left deep gashes in the confidence and trust of the people in these states."

"Wow."

"Mayors, commissioners, D.A.'s, politicians, bankers, businessmen. Those who were in those pictures were identified and their crimes were broadcast for all those with eyes to see. Before they were able to stop the virus in the FBI network, we were informed that the same virus had been sent to the CNN. The media delighted in butchering everyone they could get their hands on."

"It was a massacre."

"So far, seventy eight people have been arrested, and the numbers are rising by the minute. We've also been able to coordinate with FBI offices located in other states. So far they have found sixteen prostitution camps run by the organization. More than sixty children and underage teens have been freed from those subhuman conditions. We're still investigating as there might be more."

Hotch sighed, rubbing his hand tiredly over his face, "There might be many more."

"Hotch, if that's all true, she will need to be put into witness protection. There's no way they will let her get away after exposing them like that."

"That's probably why she tried to kill herself. She knew exactly what she was doing when she got into that car. She had no intention of getting out alive. That's also why she insisted to be in on the exchange and free Reid. She knew we would need him once it all came out."

"What's going to happen now?"

"I honestly don't know, but I'm certain of one thing. Monica Law must disappear."


	27. Butterfly Effects

a/n: Thanks for your patience waiting for this small chapter. I hope you all enjoy it.

* * *

_**Chapter 27: Butterfly Effects**_

"Are you okay, kid?" Morgan asked.

Reid's worried eyes had drifted towards Moni for the third time in as many minutes. It was clear to him that Reid was not focused on their poker game, which made it even harder for Morgan to believe that the score was five games to one in Reid's favor.

Reid blinked, turning his gaze again to the cards in his hand. He sighed tiredly.

"She should have woken up already."

"She will wake up when she's ready. You have to think that the doctors said her injuries were quite severe and the anesthesia's effects change from person to person."

Morgan leaned back against the pillows of his hospital bed and shuffled through the cards.

"I don't know what I would have done if she had succeeded." Reid said softly, as if he was talking to himself.

"You would have figured out a way to honor her memory by doing exactly what she asked you to do."

"Save the children."

"Yes."

Morgan irritably scratched around the itchy gauze under the bandage on his forehead. Was it too much to ask for bandages that didn't feel like they were soaked in itching powder before they were brought to him? Morgan dropped his hand to his side in defeat and tried to focus on something else.

"How far are we now in the body count?"

"Well, Hotch told me that this has already gone international. Some people were sought out by Interpol, so we forwarded the information we had on them, leading to arrests in France, the United Kingdom and Germany. It was big, really big."

Reid tried to keep up with the game, but Moni's pillow was being difficult. The sides billowed around her head in a way that made Reid think that they were too soft. They can't be supporting her neck properly, he thought.

_Maybe I should go see if I can find her a better one. They should have some better pillows in the gift shop downstairs. I could get one or two..._

"Reid."

Reid's eyes snapped away from Moni's sleeping face to Morgan's grinning one.

"What are you going to do now?"

"About what?" Reid asked, distractedly.

Morgan rested more deeply into his pillows. "About her," He motioned with his head, "She will need to start her life all over again."

The cuts and purple bruises around Moni's eyes from the impact of the airbag belied her peaceful expression. Reid was aware that he was staring again, but he couldn't help it. The scars seemed so offensive against her delicate skin. They also made it hard to believe that she would be okay, like everyone kept telling him.

Her left arm was broken in two different places- and now in a cast. The nurse had taken away the different IV's, leaving only the saline, and they had reduced the painkillers, hoping that she would wake up soon.

"Yes, she will. Hotch spoke with Section Chief Strauss last night. Moni was granted a full pardon."

"That's great news, Kid, but that's not what I asked."

"What did you ask?" Reid sifted his cards again, trying to ignore Morgan's deep gaze.

"I didn't ask what Moni is going to do. I asked what you are going to do, to help her."

Reid bit his lower lip, mulling over Morgan's question, "Do you think I should?"

"What I think is unimportant. What do you think?"

Reid dropped the cards on the bed between them, no longer feeling the need to continue with the pretense.

"I don't know what to do when she finally does wake up," Reid said in a low voice.

"What about asking her out on a date?"

"What?" he squealed.

"That's normally how things start out. Of course, you two kind of skipped the introduction and dating part and went straight to the raw, wall shattering sex part."

Reid cheeks flamed, earning a chuckle from Morgan,"But I think that you two have to sit down and have a long talk. After all, she was willing to die for you, man. Strong feelings and emotions like that, that's not something you find every day."

Reid considered that as thumbed the edges of Morgan's bedsheets. He did have a lot to say to her. But it wasn't wise to overwhelm her so soon after everything she'd been through.

"_And that's why I love you."_

She did say that she loved him. She _loved _him. How could they go from love back to first date?_ They would definitely have to talk,_ Reid thought. If only she would just wake up.

Reid glanced back to Moni's bed and froze.

"Moni, you're awake."

Reid jumped off Morgan's bed and nearly ran to Moni's side- he missed the wince of pain as he jostled the bed and Morgan's still sore body. He had to remind himself not to hold her hand too tightly. Instead he rubbed circles over her knuckles with his left thumb while his right pressed the button to call the nurse.

She was quiet and still, her only motion came from the tears that fell from her eyes. Reid felt like an ogre for not knowing what to do to ease her discomfort.

He gently wiped her tears. As he searched for an immediate solution to her pain, she searched him for any sign of damage.

"Are you in pain? The nurses are on their way; they will give you something for it." He gave her hand a tentative squeeze for assurance.

Moni breathed deeply as her body made every ache and pain known. It was to be expected, Moni thought, a car wreck never did a person's body any good. The knowledge still didn't keep a low mewl from escaping her lips as a sharp pain raced through her side.

Reid freaked, "Nurse!"

Three nurses filed into the room- each with a different Disney character on their scrubs- and immediately surrounded Moni's bed, nudging Reid out of the way and closing the curtain between the two hospital beds

"You're going to be all right," Reid yelled, hoping to be heard beyond the curtain and over the noise of the nurses talking to each other.

"You have to be all right," he muttered.


	28. You're free now

_**Chapter 28: You're free now**_

_**Take the wave now and know that you're free  
Turn your back the land, face the sea  
Face the wind now, so wild and so strong  
When you think of me, wave to me and send me song**_

The nurses redressed Moni wounds just before the doctors came in to give her a run down of her condition as well as the do's and dont's she would have to abide by. Reid wasn't allowed in the room during the consultation.

Hotch, Rossi, Prentiss and JJ arrived to find him standing in the corridor, pacing nervously.

"What's happening?" Hotch asked, noticing, with much relief, the small smile on Reid's face.

"She's awake. The doctors are with her now," Reid pointed with his head the closed door of the room.

"Is she lucid? Has she spoken to you at all?"

He shook his head,"She hasn't said a single word since she opened her eyes."

"Ouch." Prentiss said, looking worriedly at the closed door.

"You think that's bad?" Reid shoved his fists further down in his pockets, trying to stop fidgeting.

"Don't you? She's been a chatterbox since we met her- talking non stop- and now she's quiet after she tried to kill herself. Am I the only one who feels something is wrong with this picture?" Prentiss looked around, seeing the same concern in Hotch's and JJ's faces.

"We have to talk to her. Break the news slowly," Reid nodded vigorously to Hotch's plan, "and you have to explain to her that she's safe now. So, no more disappearing acts or dangerous walks on ledges- we won't let anyone get to her."

Hotch was interrupted by the doctors and nurses walking out of Moni's room.

"What's her condition?" Rossi asked one of the doctors.

"Physically, I would say that she is meeting our expectations. Her surgery was a success, there is no sign of infection on her exams, and she will heal with minimal scarring. However...medicine can go a long way in healing a person, but that person's will to be healed carries them the rest of the way. This is what worries me with her."

"Why do you say that?" Reid folded his arms defensively, but it did little to prepare for what he was about to hear.

"I would suggest a therapist. She did, after all, try to take her own life. She almost succeeded in it. Her psyche is very fragile right now; anything might tip the scales and lead her to depression, which could hinder the healing of her physical wounds."

The doctor- noticing the alarmed expressions on the agents faces- rushed to explain himself.

"I'm not saying that she might attempt suicide again. I'm saying that her convalescence period might be longer if she doesn't feel like she has a reason to fight to get better. As of now, she's on the brink of clinical depression. If she slips any further, we would have to move her to the psychiatric ward so that she could be cared for by those more suited than my team to deal with her specific issues."

"How soon can we move her?" Prentiss asked.

"If she keeps responding well to the antibiotics and there are no signs of infection, I can release her tomorrow morning. As long as you transfer her to a place where she can have continuous medical follow ups."

"Thanks, Doctor," Hotch shook the doctor's hand and followed Reid back into the room.

Reid resumed his position at Moni's side, taking her hand in his.

"Hey" he said, gently brushing a curly strand of hair from her forehead.

Moni's eyes were hazed from the latest doze of pain medicine, her gaze on Reid was unfocused.

"How are you feeling?"

She tried to lick her cracked lips, but her mouth was too dry, thanks to her medicines. Rossi took a small cup from the side table and scooped up a bit of crushed ice from the bucket next to it. He offered the ice to Moni and she accepted eagerly.

"Slow down, a little each time." Rossi said, fearing that she would swallow the ice whole if she wasn't careful. He tilted her head forward, supporting her neck so that she could eat more ice.

She closed her eyes and sighed as the cool liquid coated her throat. Settling back on her pillow, Moni gave Rossi a faint smile. He noticed, with great sadness, the way it didn't reach her eyes. The effervescence that he was used to seeing in her was gone, leaving only ambiguity behind.

"Thanks," Moni small voice croaked.

Reid nearly fell out of his chair with surprise.

"So, how-"

"I don't feel anything," she interrupted, "they must have given me the good drugs."

"Have the doctors explained what they've done to you? You don't have to worry, you will be fine."

Moni's mouth twitched downward slightly at Reid's statement and, just before she turned her head to stare out the window, her eyes misted over. Reid looked over his shoulder to Hotch, who nodded silently, telling him that he saw it too.

"Yeah. I'll be fine." She whispered.

"We actually have to talk, Moni."

At Reid indication, Hotch came to stand by him, near Moni's bed.

"Moni," Hotch waited until she slowly fixed her gaze on his.

"What you did was... irresponsible, irrational and downright stupid. The consequences of your actions could have been much greater than anything we could have controlled, and-"

"Hotch,"

"Yes, Moni."

"Shut up." Hotch's eyebrows shot to his hairline while Rossi, Prentiss, JJ and Morgan tried to keep from laughing.

Moni took her hand out Reid's grasp and and rested it beside her head on the pillow.

"Did you save the children?" she asked, looking from Reid to Hotch.

"Yes, I did. Actually, not me, but my team and the other agents. We've arrested most of those involved." Reid confirmed.

"Good. Now go away." Having said that, she closed her eyes and turned her head to further ignore Reid and the other agents.

Reid stared at the back of her head in shock for a few seconds. Hotch laid his hand on his young teammate's shoulder in a silent show of support.

"I don't understand." Reid's voice quivered, incapable of hiding his hurt over Moni's indifference.

"Go away, Reid," Moni repeated. Her voice held no emotion, none of the warmth that he had unknowingly become accustomed to.

"What?"

"I said go."

"I don't understand. Why are you saying this?"

"Because there's nothing here for you, Reid."

"Reid? Wh-what happened to Spence? Why are you calling me Reid now? Why are you saying this to me?"

He could feel his throat closing as emotion threatened to choke him to death.

"You said that you loved me, back in... in the cemetery."

When Moni's eyes opened, they centered on Reid. He could feel the coldness as it moved from those caramel orbs and settled into his bones. _How could Moni look at him like this_, Reid thought- _his_ Moni. It just didn't add up. There had to be some rea...

"I lied."

Her words had the same effect as a Mac Truck hitting him head on: his thoughts halted, his sight darkened and his heart stalled. There was even physical pain, which made absolutely no sense to him.

His mind frantically searched for an explanation for her actions, other than the obvious answer that everything that happened between them had been a lie. It couldn't be that simple, that heartbreaking. But for once, his brilliant mind couldn't figure out the puzzle, the pieces wouldn't fit.

"What? but..."

Moni huffed a frustrated sigh,"Just go, Reid."

His pleading eyes searched hers one last time and found nothing, so Reid got up and left as fast as his feet would carry him.

Hotch, Prentisss and JJ followed after him, eager to console their young friend while Rossi stayed back to watch the final curtain call. As soon as the door closed behind the other profilers, Moni's face crumbled under the weight of her desperation and misery.

A loud sob clawed its way up her throat and bounced off her tongue; the sound of it was deafening in the silent room. She bit down on her lower lip to keep herself quiet. The last thing she wanted was for Spencer to come back in the room to check on her, or see if she'd changed her mind. She would have to hurt him. She would have to watch that sorrow consume him again and still not be able to do anything to take it away. Moni knew she wouldn't survive that a second time around.

Rossi slowly approached her bedside. Upon hearing the unexpected footsteps, Moni quickly opened her eyes.

"Why are you doing this? You risked everything to save his life. You almost died trying to do so. Why are you kicking him out of your life now?"

Moni's tear stained face was the picture of despair, it broke Rossi's heart.

He took the hand that was not in a cast and squeezed, trying to give her strength to explain her actions.

"He's better off without me," she sniffled.

"How can you say that?"

"I'm a thief, Rossi; he's a federal agent. It would never work out." She sobbed. The sudden movement pulled at her chest and stomach, making her cry even more, "Besides, I don't want to see his face when the cops come in here to arrest me."

"You're wrong kid, you're not going to prison." Morgan said from his bed, where he had been silently watching the scene.

"What?"

Rossi nodded, "All charges were withdrawn."

"How? I don't understand."

There were too many emotions warring inside her at the moment. Moni clutched the front of her hospital gown, trying to stop the queasiness from churning in her stomach.

Rossi gave her a soft smile, although her distressed look was starting to worry him.

"You see, everything you've ever stolen was still in your possession when we found your hideout in the glass factory, and you had carefully documented each assignment that resulted in a theft. So, all we had to do was contact the rightful owners and return their property under the condition that they withdraw any and all charges. Once they've heard what you've done and all you've done for the children, they've agreed."

"Can you even do that?" She could feel a new emotion slowly making its way up through her- hope.

Rossi shrugged. "There's a first time for everything, Moni. You're not going to prison. Hotch spoke with the D.A. and, given the major role you played in helping to close the case on the human trafficking ring, there will be no charges filed against you."

She stared blankly at Rossi, at a loss for words. He went to sit in the chair that Reid had just vacated, to give her a moment to process it all. Four books were stacked on the floor beside the chair; next to them, three empty coffee cups. Rossi picked up one of the books and turned to the last bookmarked page. He wondered how Reid managed to slow his lightening fast reading long enough to actually read to her.

"Unless I'm mistaken, Kid, he really cares for you," he turned the page, to the next poem,"He hasn't left your side a single moment since you were brought in, you know?"

His words brought on fresh tears. Moni could feel the emptiness that Reid had managed to fill now more than ever,"But Rossi... I'm not pretty anymore."

"What?" Both, Rossi and Morgan, said in unison.

"The doctors said that I'm all broken inside. They had to cut me to fix me up, so there are lots of holes, spots, and scars. I'm not pretty anymore."

Morgan shook his head at seeing how miserable she was over something that was completely inconsequential to Reid.

"Do you really think that Reid is so shallow that he only cares about your looks?"

"But that's all I have. Had. And I'm stupid, Rossi."

"No, you're not." Rossi said firmly.

"Yes, I am." She insisted, sounding more like the stubborn lady he had met at the precinct, "I'm not a bright person- I'm quite aware of that- and he's a genius. He's going to get bored with me, then he will leave; so, it's better if he leaves now. If he leaves when he's not very attached, it will hurt less."

"What gives you the right of making this decision on his behalf? Your line of reasoning is all wrong-"

"_Please_ Rossi."

It was then that Moni broke. Her tears came hard and fast. The pain her heaving chest was inflicting on her wounded body, she could hardly feel. All she could feel now was the emptiness that just kept growing the longer Reid was away from her.

It made her wish for the pain.

Her agonized moans along with the increasingly rapid beeping of the monitors filled the space of the room.

Rossi was frozen in shock. It was disturbing watching the young woman fall so completely apart in front of him. It was as if she had forgotten they were in the room with her. Or maybe she was aware, but feeling shame- feeling anything more than what she was already struggling with- would have cast her too deeply into the hole.

Morgan, knowing that the nurses would rush in at any moment to see what was causing Moni's monitors to pitch, attempted to calm her,"Moni? Moni, look at me."

"He's better off without me," she said between gasps.

Her hand clutched the sheets and her body visibly quivered. She didn't even look up.


	29. What do you want?

_**Chapter 29: What do you want?**_

Reid rushed out the hospital room, followed by Hotch, Prentiss and JJ.

"Reid."

"I can't believe it."

"Reid."

"Why did she lie, Hotch?"

"Why do you think she's lying?"

"Why do I... Hotch,_ you were there_. People who are about to die _rarely_ lie. She looked into my eyes, kissed me goodbye and said that... she said that she _loved_ me, right before driving off to what she thought was her last stand. She wouldn't have lied then- not then."

Reid paced the corridor for what felt like the hundredth time that day. His emotions battled against his intellect, trying to come up with a good reason that wouldn't further mutilate his heart.

"Then profile her, Reid. Why would she lie to you now?"

"I don't know. It doesn't make any sense. She's not making any sense."

"Maybe because she's afraid of what you might think of her." Prentiss suggested, although it was only to placate him.

"That's irrational."

"Yes, that's _fear_. Fear is irrational by nature. She thought that she would never have to face you again, so she poured her heart out to you when she had the chance in the cemetery. Now she's been given another chance, but, in her mind, the circumstances haven't changed." Prentiss explained.

"Of course they've changed." Reid pinched the bridge of his nose between his index finger and thumb.

"Have they really? Does she know that she's free?" Hotch pondered aloud, "That's she is not going to jail anymore? In her head, once she's released from the hospital, she's going to jail; and she's terrified that Reid is going to be the one who has to arrest her."

"Oh, my God," JJ exclaimed.

"What?"

"What drives her, Reid?"

"JJ, I-"

"Just think."

"Uh... beauty. She loves seeing beauty in things."

"Exactly."

"I'm not following you." Hotch said, noting the same confusion on Reid's face.

"A few minutes after she woke up, the doctors came into the room and spent a long time with her... explaining all her wounds and injuries."

"Of course, they have to do that." Reid shrugged his shoulders.

"Now she has scars." JJ said the words very slowly, but after a few seconds passed with no "Aha!", she decided to spell it out for them.

"Just think about it: before, she was proud of having presented you an unblemished body- all smooth skin with no imperfections."

"-But now she is going to have scars, so she's sending you away. She doesn't feel worthy of you anymore. She thinks you won't want her with the scars." Prentiss deduced.

"But that's ridiculous. Of course I do."

Prentiss gave him a considering look, asking,"Do you really want her? Despite her scars?"

"Emily? I..."

"What do you want, Reid?" Hotch asked.

"Hotch...," Reid stood with his mouth open, no answer in sight.

"Because if you go in there, you can't expect her to gladly accept you into her life as something temporary. She really doesn't have anybody else; Declercq is dead, so is Peter Drake. Her whole life support is gone; so she chose to end her life instead of living without them, or being just a small detail in yours."

"She's giving you a way out," Hotch concluded.

"She's letting you go, Reid. If you want to walk out, never to see her again, this is the time," JJ said, her blue eyes filled with concern.

"If you really love something, set it free." Prentiss, ever the philosophical one, chimed in. "She thinks that she's out of your league, so she is making it clear that this is your chance to walk away."

"Do you really think that… that I would do that?" Reid looked to each of his teammates in disbelief. They all remained silent, and soon his disbelief turned to horror at the doubt he could see creeping on their faces.

"Guys... I..."

"No," Hotch finally spoke after a few seconds of doubt,"I don't. What I'm saying to you, however, is that you can only enter that room if you are absolutely sure that this is it, this is what you want, no second thoughts. Because if you go in there and give her hope that you can reciprocate her feelings when you actually can't … she's too fragile to overcome that kind of devastation, so you'd better walk out now."

It felt like his heart was trying to climb up through his brain, neither was functioning properly: his mind wouldn't decide between the two choices, his heart couldn't stop pounding every time he thought of the outcome of each. It was an impossible decision. Reid rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands, which did nothing but transfer sweat onto his eyelids. In the seconds his eyes moved away from the white hospital floor, Reid caught the anticipating stares of his three companions.

"What do you want, Reid?" Hotch asked,"Do you want to walk away, never to see her again? Nobody would blame you for that."

Never see her again. As Reid contemplated those words, images of Moni came through like a photo reel: Moni risking her life to save him from a car, sitting with her on the floor of the the interrogation room, her getting sick and puking all over Hotch and herself.

She was so terrified, Reid remembered, shivering in the corner of the interrogation room when he went to talk to her. He recalled trying to calm her down enough so they could take her to clean herself up.

Then there was their one and only night together: how she bravely dared to enter his room and seduce him; how she had confused him and made him laugh; how vulnerable she was, even though there was a core of steel hidden right underneath all the softness that was so _Moni_.

And of course there was Peter Drake. He had defended her fiercely, acting like the father that she had never had. Reid couldn't forget the lady in the library either. She had been so sweet in telling him and Morgan about Moni's past.

Moni's paintings, there were so many, but Reid could and did recall each and every one of them in his head. Her several drawings of him smiling, always happy, that she left everywhere she went like a small trail of breadcrumbs.

"What do you want, Reid?" Hotch asked again.

How she had melted in his arms that night, her body malleable to his touch and his hungry kisses. The look of awe on her face when he showed her what pleasure was, what it could be when it was not selfish or malicious, took his breath away.

"What do you want?"

...her soft moans and sighs as he moved within her, and her caramel eyes that shone with unshed tears as they fell into unimaginable bliss together. Her tears of joy felt like cleansing water against his cheek when they flowed. She was perfect. Her arms were so small and feminine, but they held him tightly when his body gave out from their love making, as if they were made for him...

"I want her." Reid muttered, looking up at Hotch. He repeated the words louder, feeling the conviction grow into an overwhelming force pushing him towards her door," I want her. I want her in my life, in my bed, in my future. I want her giggles when she finds something pretty and how she incessantly draws me laughing in every single piece of paper she can get her hands on. I want that, Hotch."

Hotch smiled proudly at his young profiler.

"Then you'd better go in there and tell her that."


	30. Checkmate

_**Chapter: 30 Checkmate**_

_Don't look back when you reach the new shore  
Don't forget what you're leaving me for  
Don't forget when you're missing me so  
Love must never hold, never hold tight, but let go_

_Send me a song - Celtic woman  
_

Moni was still sobbing - and now being comforted by Rossi- when Reid reached the door of the room. He paused as he saw her anguished sobs, sending a tortured glance at Rossi who just shook his head, desolated. He walked slowly into the room not to startle her out of her confession mode.

"He will hate me, Rossi, I'm sure of it." She hadn't seen him enter, since her face was buried in the pillow that was acting as a tear catcher. All this crying couldn't be healthy for her, especially after the delicate surgery she had been through.

Reid silently approached the bed. His hands took the place of Rossi's in Moni's curls.

"You're wrong." he said.

Moni tensed at the sound of his voice. She opened her red-rimmed eyes to a smile more perfect than any of the many she had drawn of his. Their was something different about this one. Before she could delve too far into the possible change, she realized that he was rubbing no, _caressing _- her hair.

"What are you doing here, Reid?" Her voice quivered, but her resolve had not changed yet.

"I thought we had agreed that you would call me Spencer - and I'm not going anywhere."

"But you should."

"Why?"

Rossi quickly vacated the chair and Reid took his seat; his eyes were almost at the same level as Moni's now. He removed his fingers from her hair and leaned back in the chair, giving her a challenging look.

"Tell me one single reason why I should walk out of your life. If you give me a sound reason - which I can't refute - I'll do it."

She frowned at him, "If I give you a good reason, you will go?"

"As long as I can't refute it, I'll go."

She bit her lower lip and pondered. Rossi, Prentiss, JJ and Hotch all stood at the foot of her bed, waiting for her to rationally debunk their resident genius.

_Obviously no support coming from any of them, _Moni thought.

"Uh... I don't want to be a burden."

"Nope." Reid shook his head, "You're not a burden. You were a valuable witness and victim during a Federal Investigation, and as such you should be protected, not put aside. Hence, a Federal security detail is mandatory...and I kind of volunteered myself." He winced, before smiling again at her. "Next reason."

"I, uhm...I'm a thief. And you are sworn by law to arrest people like me."

"Wrong." Reid unfolded his arms and leaned forward to stare directly into Moni's eyes as he spoke, "You were a victim of a campaign of manipulation, perpetrated by someone who you thought held you in high regard. However, he was using you to further his own interests. Besides, everything you've ever stolen was accounted for when we found your place, so everything was returned to their rightful owners. No gain, no crime. And, apparently, once informed of your selfless acts during our last case, they were okay with withdrawing the charges."

"But I committed a crime. Shouldn't I be punished for it?"

Rossi took a step forward, silently asking for Moni's attention, "The purpose of our work is to ensure that the worst kind of monsters, those who prey on innocents, are caught."

He opened his jacket and pulled a small paper from his pocket to give to her. Looking down at the slightly wrinkled paper, Moni couldn't help but smile at its beauty.

"My Reid drawing."She gently lifted the paper up show it to Reid, careful not to tear the edges. "It's you. I drew it when I was at Pete's." Her smile wiped out of her face when she remembered what happened with the old hacker, her eyes filling with tears for his senseless death.

"Yeah," he gave her a sad smile, remembering all that had happened that day, as he twirled a tendril of her hair around his finger,"you did."

"I think it all goes back to what you told me when we were together." Reid continued. "Psychopaths, sociopaths and pedophiles, those are the ones we hunt. Because they are thieves who steal something that can't ever be recovered or returned."

"What do they steal?" She muttered, her eyes still on the drawing. She remembered how happy she had been while she drew those lines and she just wished for that kind of feeling back.

_Never again,_she thought tearfully.

"Innocence." Hotch answered, "If we were to arrest you and put you in the same cell as those monsters, we would be stealing from you as well. You've been punished enough."

"So I'm free to go?" Moni bit her lower lip, looking at Hotch confused.

"You're free to go." Reid said. He waited for the happiness to shine on her beautiful face, but he was disappointed. There was still more that hadn't been explained and Moni was nothing if not thorough.

"Next question." he sighed.

Tears clouded her eyes again, so she cast them down to her bedsheets. "I"m all broken inside. The doctors cut me up and fixed but I'm…"

Reid cupped his hand under her chin, catching the first tear as it stole for her eyes.

"I don't care about that." Before the words were completely out of his mouth, he knew she wouldn't accept them.

She sniffled. "You should."

"But I don't."

"Why?"

The ferocity lurking beneath her strangely quiet words surprised Reid. If he hadn't known better, he would have thought that she was angry at him for his insistence. But no, this anger was directed at herself, and it easily topped any anger he had ever seen her express. On a scale of one to ten on self-disgust, Moni was breezing past eight.

"This is about your scars, isn't it?" he nodded the answer to his own question, "Wanna see mine? "

Reid stood up from the bedside chair, outstretching his hand when Moni tried to move,"Just..stay there, okay? "

He fumbled with his belt buckle, hearing the hushed snickers from his colleagues,"I was shot in the leg a couple of years ago and I still have the scar. And I got some very nasty cuts on my arms in a fight with a suspect."

"No you don't. Stop it please." She tried to stop him with her hand not in the cast, but he kept going.

"Yes, I do."

"I didn't see any scars on you when we..."she quickly bit down on her lip to keep the sentence from completing itself, which earned another round of chuckles from the other occupants in the room. She blushed brightly when she realized what she almost revealed, bringing more laughter from the team.

"You don't have any scars," she said sternly.

"You didn't see them because your attention was occupied elsewhere. Guys- please!" Reid turned to the other profilers who were nearly falling over each other now with laughter.

"Sorry." Prentiss muttered, completely lacking sincerity.

Reid sighed, turning back to Moni,"Next question."

"I'm …" she paused to look at Morgan, who had managed to regain his more serious mood, "I'm stupid. I'm going to bore you to tears in a blink of an eye."

He smiled softly and shook his head, "Again, you're wrong."

"But Reid, I'm not wrong. You've got to listen to me-"

"No, you listen. I have something here to prove it." He dug around in his old leather bag until he found it, "Its a gift, for you."

"A gift?" she took the colored cube from his hand, "Ahhhh... It's a pretty cube."

"Yes, a Rubik's cube. You're supposed to..."

"Make it prettier by putting all the colors on their right side." She said softly, already beginning to solve the puzzle with her hand without the cast. Hotch took note of the time on his watch.

"You have what the doctors call Asperger's syndrome, which is an autism spectrum disorder. Its characterized by significant difficulties in social interaction, restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior and interests. This syndrome explains your impaired, non verbal behaviors; your common misunderstandings or lack of recognition of people's feelings or reactions to what you are talking about and your continuous pursuit of specific and narrow areas of interest. All of these symptoms are quite common in those who suffer from Asperger's."

Moni stopped frozen in fear, the solved Rubik's cube nestled in her lap, "Oh, my God. I'm going to die?"

"No, you're not going to die." Reid chuckled at that. Only Moni would have made that connection.

But she still frowned, confused.

"But you just said that I'm sick. Am I contagious?"

"No, you're... you're not going to die. It's not a condition of the body, it's a condition of the mind. You solved the cube." He pointed to the cube in her hand, resting in her hand.

She glanced at the cube in her lap and smiled, "I made it prettier."

"You just proved yourself wrong."

"I don't understand."

He took the cube from her hand, "You're a genius, Moni. Your brain is just wired differently than other people's brains. Asperger's sufferers often demonstrate enhanced auditory and visual perception. Many famous people were also Aspies - as they are called in their inner group. Einstein, Leonardo Da Vinci, Isaac Newton, George Washington... they all showed clear symptoms of Asperger's and they were all brilliant."

He waved the cube before her eyes.

"In your specific case, your gifts are with color coordination and spacial area. You instinctively understand colors and shapes and your paintings are a direct reflection of that. Your ability to mix and match is beyond that of some masters; and I think you use the Fibonacci sequence instinctively in the composition of your paintings."

"The magic numbers make everything prettier." She said biting her lip, frowning at Reid.

"Yeah, it's called the Golden rule because it represents perfection in nature."

Reid looked down at the cube, "You solved it with no problem."

"So I'm a genius because I know colors in a cube."

"No. This cube is sometimes used to measure someone's IQ. You solved it in only 11 seconds, one handed."

"What's the big deal?" She shrugged, still unconvinced.

"The world record is six point sixty-five seconds," Hotch said.

"So...I'm smart?" The doubt in her voice was real, as she glanced at Hotch still unbelieving.

"Yes." Reid said.

"Really smart?"

"Almost as smart as me. But a different kind of smart, as my geniality is towards data and numbers while yours is more about space, forms, and colors, but... yes, you are really smart." He grinned.

She hummed, laying back and staring at the ceiling as she processed the information just given to her.

_Still no real happiness, _Reid noted.

"What's going to happen to me now? Declercq is dead. Pete is dead. I have nowhere to go." She asked in a faint voice, her eyes fixed at the ceiling. Hotch took a step forward, drawing her attention towards him.

"Moni, due to the sensitivity of the material you've exposed and the influence of the people you helped to arrest, we will have to hide you to keep you safe from any retaliation."

Reid smiled gently at her, "We were thinking about something in plain sight. Something like... an art student coming from France to unveil her works, attending art college in DC. What do you think?"

Moni frowned in concentration.

"I think I could pull it off," she said thoughtfully,"Declercq taught me French. He always said that I should learn the language of the great masters."

"He said that?" Hotch asked, surprised at that information. So far, the old thief had just misused or manipulated his apprentice.

"Yes he did. When we went to Europe, he showed me all the great museums with lots of paintings that I needed to learn about. I studied art while he worked."

"You studied in Europe?" Rossi asked. That would explain the classic aspects of some of her works, which reminded Rossi so much of the great painters.

"In France and in Italy, so it would be easy to pass as a French painter." She smiled as she remembered her time in the old continent. "Declercq was working on some projects, so he left me alone for a while. I completed a full academic year at the Florence Academy of Art while he finished his business in Rome."

"You had formal training, then." JJ asked, glancing at Prentiss who is almost bursting with her news.

"Moni, listen." Prentiss approached her bed, "I've taken the liberty of forwarding some pictures of your paintings to my mom; she knows people in some artistic circles. The curator of an art gallery she frequents was very impressed by your work and he wants to feature them in an art exhibition and maybe even sell a couple of them."

"Sell? Why would someone buy my paintings?"

"Why?" Reid chuckled, "Moni, you're an amazing artist. Anyone who looked at your works would want to buy them."

Moni surprise was nearly comical. _She has no idea how perfect she is_, Reid thought.

"I'm telling you the truth," he told her,"You're incredibly gifted. Your paintings would certainly be sold if exposed in an art gallery to the right public."

"Wow..."

"And if you keep painting, I'm sure that we could find more buyers for your works." Prentiss proposed.

"Why would you need more? Aren't those enough?" was Moni confused reply.

The agents frowned at her confusion.

"Well, we retrieved seventeen original paintings from your loft - all of an outstanding quality - but the curator would need more to set up an exhibition." JJ explained, just to observe Hotch and Rossi nodding at that.

"But why don't you use the others?"

At everyone's baffled expressions, Moni explained, "The ones in my loft are just my favorites, those I didn't want to be separated from. Declercq kept all my previous works; he has truckloads of them."

"Truckloads of them?" Reid asked, excited about the idea of seeing more of her works.

"Exactly how many paintings are you talking about, Moni?" Rossi asked, already imagining a reasonable number of paintings, just to have his prediction dashed in Moni's next words.

"I don't know, two, maybe three hundred of them. I've been painting since I was eight and Declercq always said that my paintings weren't good enough - that I need to study more of the classics - so I kept practicing. But my previous works, he kept them all."

The room was completely silent for a whole minute.

"Three hundred paintings..." Morgan finally muttered, before slinking back onto his pillows with a chuckle.

"He said that your paintings weren't _good _enough?" Reid said incredulously, "Moni, that's outrageous. They're... I can't even find words to describe them."

"Really?" She perked up at that, "Did you like them?"

"Of course I did!"

She giggled like a kid with a prized secret, making Reid laugh in return.

"Declercq kept them all because he said he liked to notice how slowly I was improving. He always said that I was his retirement plan."

"Of course he would say that, especially if he was planning to sell them later on," Rossi muttered, thinking about the paintings they had found in Moni's loft. If the others were of the same quality and expertise of those in there, this was an amazing find.

"Where exactly did he store these paintings?" Reid asked.

"Lexington Easy Storage warehouse. That's where he kept all his old stuff."

Hotch immediately opened his cell phone to call Garcia. He went to the corner of the room so that he could talk privately with their computer tech while Moni and the team kept talking

"We will also need to give you a new name and identity. Monica Law can't resurface ever again." Said Prentiss, back to their main concern.

"Something French?" Moni suggested excitedly.

"Louise? Christine?" Rossi suggested, noticing the small smile making it way onto Moni's face.

"Why not _Monique_?" She said the name with a French flare, already getting into her new persona.

"No, it's too close to your real name. It's unacceptable." Said JJ, already thinking about the problems it might be to get it approved.

"And that's exactly why nobody would ever guess it me. They would be expecting something common like Mary, or something exotic as Josephine. Not something like... _Monique_." Moni insisted, with her usual stubbornness.

"It actually makes sense," Reid said just as Hotch returned to the group.

"Of course it does. It's brilliant in its simplicity."

Moni pleaded to Hotch with her eyes. He chuckled and acquiesced.

"Okay, you can be Monique. Now we have to pick a last name."

"I was thinking about something common..." Rossi said, pretending to think hard.

"Common, I don't like common." Moni pouted.

"What about Reid?"

Reid was almost certain that everyone had stopped breathing at the exact same moment; the room was much to silent for breath to be being released and go unheard. Still, he forged on.

"I have enough room in my place and you're welcome to stay as long as you need. I wouldn't mind having you around, and staying with a Federal Agent would also be a plus as I could keep an eye on you..."

The room fell into silence again.

Reid had always been a man of solid facts and science, but what he wouldn't give, he thought, to have some sort of mind reading ability right now. Especially considering that Moni had yet to say anything - she was just staring at him with those caramel eyes with a hint of sadness on them..

Moni's voice, despite how low it was when she spoke, was easily heard by all in the room, "I don't wanna pretend to be your sister or long lost cousin, Spence, so forget it."

Reid bit his lower lip. His hand crept across the hospital bedsheets to connect with hers. He stared at them as his fingers traced the length of hers, "No... I was thinking more along the lines of you being my wife. It's a valid proposition that deserves some study."

JJ and Prentiss barely contained their schoolgirls giggles while Morgan and Rossi shared an appreciative nod, no doubt thinking the same thing - _the kid's got balls_.

"Is that a proposal?"

"Do you want it to be?"

"Don't answer a question with another question."

"Why not?

"Just...because."

"Because is not a good answer."

"My God, she's a _female Reid_." Prentiss said in stagewhisper, but she couldn't deny that their evasive conversation was endearing.

"Just answer the question." Reid said, still staring at their joined hands.

"And what was the question?"

"You're really going to make me ask it out loud?" He moaned, just to hear the giggling becoming more intense behind him.

"Yep."

Moni brushed his hair back out of his face, so that he couldn't hide behind it. He rubbed his cheek against the back of her hand, kissing the scratched knuckles before looking up into her eyes, "Monica Law, thief extraordinaire, you have stolen my peace of mind and my heart. Would you come live with me, be my wife and become Mrs. Monique Reid?"

He delicately rubbed his thumb over her scratches, which, Moni noticed, didn't hurt. Even the act of inhaling made her injuries ache nowadays, but Reid somehow knew just how to touch her, how to hold her steadily but not firm enough to hurt her. He would never hurt her.

"Moni?"

Her silence and pensive mood was scaring him. She had always been the impulsive one and yet, she was thinking. Hard.

"Aren't you going to freak out again if I jump in your bed naked while you're asleep?"

That was about all they could take. The team burst into hysterical laughter: Hotch shaking his head at the young couple; Prentiss letting out an uncharacteristic snort; and Morgan covering his eyes with his arm while the other rested on his stomach, where he felt his stitches pulling from his gasps.

"Why would I? You didn't hear any complaints the last time you did it." Now it was Reid's turn to chuckle.

"You freaked out." Her smartass smirk was dead on target.

"No, I didn't."

"Yes, you did."

"Did not."

"Did too."

"Did not."

"Okay, enough." Hotch decided to intervene before they reached kindergarten level in the conversation, and before his team died of hysterics. "Are you going to answer his question or not?"

Moni gave Hotch a mock glare before turning back to Reid, "Okay. But I want an encore."

"An encore?" Reid raised his eyebrows in question.

"That proposal sucked, big time. I want a decent one."

Morgan lifted his head from his pillow to look at Moni, " And what would a decent proposal entail?"

"Me... in a pretty dress (standing and not in a hospital bed smelling of disinfectant), you on one knee with your Sunday's best on and combed hair."

"There's nothing wrong with my hair." Reid touched his long hair, self conscious.

"A nice restaurant and a walk in the park, and ice cream; let's not forget the ice cream." Reid laughed as Moni continued listing silly things that she considered important, her eyes closed imagining the scene.

"...But if we can't have ice cream, can I please have some chocolate?"

"If your doctor clears it for you, I'll see what I can do." Reid said, finally getting that blinding smile from Moni that he had been waiting all day for.

"Good, but be careful to dismiss the napoleonic power monger." She whispered, as if disclosing a top secret.

"Napoleonic power monger? Who are you talking about?"

"Nursezilla. Ask Morgan, she has shifty eyes, like this," Moni lifted her right eyebrow and blinked her left eye rapidly, bringing gales of laughter from the profilers.

"I know who she's talking about," Morgan said between chortles,"No bedside manners at all."


	31. Going home

_**Chapter 31: Going home**_

_I don't know if you can see  
The changes that have come over me  
In these last few days I've been afraid  
That I might drift away  
I've been telling old stories, singing songs  
That make me think about where I've come from  
That's the reason why I seem  
So far away today_

_Let me tell you that I love you  
That I think about you all the time  
Caledonia, you're calling me, now I'm going home  
But if I should become a stranger  
Know that it would make me more than sad  
Caledonia's been everything I've ever had_

_Caledonia - Celtic Woman_

_**Epilogue**  
_

_How do you define redemption? Or how can we recognize it when we have it right before our eyes?_

_The series of unfortunate events that led my path to cross with Moni's was filled with potholes, stones, pain and detours.__  
_

_Neither of us is naïve anymore, at least not as much as we were before. __  
_

_Life has been unkind in its dealings with Moni, putting her through hell, brimstone and fire. Yet, as I sit here beside her in the jet, watching her making caricatures of each of us on the team, I can't help but be amazed at how she still managed to protect the tiny bit of her soul which still holds that childlike wonder I can clearly see when I look into her eyes. __  
_

_My life as profiler has exposed me to the worst mankind can offer. My experiences with Dilaudil have also shown me the worst facets hidden within me- my own Dr. Jekyll to my Mr. Hyde. Yet it's a fascinating experience to see myself through her eyes.__  
_

_An experience that I wish won't ever end._

CM CM CM CM

A faint trail of mist covered the night as a Black SUV rolled silently down the gravel lane in the storage center. It stopped in front of huge metal doors marked with the number 45.

"Is this the right one?" Prentiss checked at the block numbers painted on metal.

"According to Garcia, three storage units have been in under one of Declercq's several aliases for the last fifteen years: locker 45, 46 and 47." said Rossi, looking at his small notebook in his hand.

"There's only one way to be sure," Hotch said, turning the car off and opening the door. Rossi and Prentiss followed his lead, walking towards the door with their flashlights, eager to explore its contents.

Hotch checked the padlock on the door- locked. Rossi returned to the car to grab his tool bag.

Seconds later, Hotch had dismantled the padlock with bolt cutters, and both he and Rossi had managed to get the heavy doors open. Inside the storage unit, several shapes jutted out from under white sheets.

"It's too dark in here," Rossi complained, trying to find his way inside the locker.

"I think I found the light switch," Hotch called to them. He threw the switch, illuminating the unit in pale halogen lights.

"Oh, my …" Prentiss looked around flabbergasted. Rossi shook his head in astonishment.

"It's no surprise that Declercq said that she was his retirement plan," Hotch mumbled, staring at the huge painted panel to his left, depicting two girls in a forest, the light slowly filtering through the trees.

Rows upon rows of paintings, each in delicate protective diaphanous cloth, were positioned one beside the other. Here and there, the paintings were interposed with sculpted figures. Tiny, delicate figures sat next to huge, dark and emotional pieces. A wide range of materials had been used: wood, bronze, stone and...

"Is this marble?" Prentiss asked. Her eyes fixed on the amazing statue of a girl angel. Her long curly hair was carefully braided, the face was a perfect representation of sadness. Her wings were lightly unfurled, showing in the stone the delicate texture of their features- showing the amazing ability of the sculptor.

"Carrara marble, Italian. Each square meter costs a small fortune," Rossi informed. His eyes were centered on an amazing _tromp'd'oiel _figure of a fairy smiling saucily, sitting on a white rose. Her green eyes taunted the person looking at the painting. Her wings were a precise rainbow of colors, dotted with water drops.

"How many paintings do you think we have here?"

"I'm guessing hundreds," Prentiss said as she illuminated an oil portrait of an old decrepit man sitting on the floor, his hand outstretched towards the person outside of frame - asking for money.

"We have to check the other storage lockers. See if their content match this one, and make some calls to arrange to have all of this cataloged and moved into a safer place." Hotch picked up a small statue done in rosewood. It portrayed in detail a baby wrapped in cloth, each curve precise and unique in the polished wood.

"We will need to call a curator of a museum. The contents of this room alone is enough for a whole wing at the Smithsonian." Rossi touched the hand of a bronze statue, its eyes closed in ecstasy.

"We still have to check the other lockers." He picked up his phone, starting to call Garcia. "Go."

CM CM CM CM CM

Several days later, on a bright morning with just a little chill in the air, two black SUVs slowly rolled towards the Learjet on the tarmac. Its access was lowered, just waiting for the passengers to arrive.

Once the SUVs stopped, Hotch helped Morgan out of the first SUV and they made their way to the airplane, along with Prentiss and JJ. Rossi and Reid helped Moni out of the second van.

"We're going to DC by plane?" Moni asked Reid as he snaked his arm around her waist. They could have just as easily got a wheelchair for her, but then he wouldn't be able to hold her close to his side everywhere they went, and Moni was insistent on walking- as much as she could- anyway.

"Yep, you will enjoy it. It even has a sofa in it."

"Really?"

They slowly climbed the steps of the jet together. Once inside, Morgan sat relieved in his usual, comfortable seat while Reid and Rossi helped Moni to the sofa. Moni couldn't help but whimper as she tried to sit down. Her still healing wounds stretch a little, making her take deep breaths until the pain receded.

"Do you need anything? Maybe some painkillers or …"

"I'm fine, Reid. Stop hovering."

Hotch grinned at how comfortable the two were with each other.

Everyone took their usual seats- Reid next to Moni- and got ready for takeoff. He smiled nervously at Moni as she looked around the jet, trying to capture all its details.

"It's a short flight home. Once there, I want to introduce you to Garcia."

"Who is Garcia?"

"She's the most beautiful girl you will ever meet." Morgan said with a dramatic sigh.

"Really?" That piques Moni's interest.

"Wanna know why Garcia is so beautiful?"

Moni quirks an eyebrow rather than answer Reid's question.

"Garcia is so pretty because her beauty isn't confined to her exterior. She is beautiful inside and out."

Moni found herself charmed by the reverence in Reid's voice when talking about his friend in DC.

"Is she one of the shiny people?"

"Shiny people?" Rossi poked his head out from behind the row of seats. "What's that?"

"Not what, who." Moni sighed in what she now considered a Morgan fashion and leaned back on the sofa, hugging one of the pillows to her chest. "Shiny people are those who, whenever they enter a room, bring light with them. It doesn't matter if you are down or sad, they can always cheer you up. If you are hurt, they console you. If you are sad, they do everything in their power to make you happy again. If you are in darkness, they bring light. That's why they are the shiny people."

Reid leans his head back also. He and Moni's head turned to face each other, making their foreheads touch. Reid rubbed his nose against hers, saying, "Yeah, she's one of the shiny people."

Moni closed her eyes, focusing on this feeling - this completeness, this happiness - that seemed to revolve around her life now. She needed a way to process it all.

"May I have my drawing notebook?"

Reid opened his eyes, which had drifted shut shortly after Moni's, and leaned over to grab his backpack. He had stuffed some of her hard and soft pencils, as well one of the many notebooks they'd found in Moni's place in there. She nibbled at her lower lip while turning to a blank page in her notebook.

So this is the process, Reid pondered. She was so captivating, the way her delicate wrist compensated for each stroke and her hand hovered, never pressing down on the paper. She frequently cast wicked glances at him, making Reid think that she was doing another one of her "Smiling Reid" drawings.

He could only hope.

CM CM CM CM

_William Black once said that _"Innocence dwells in wisdom, never with ignorance."_  
_

_During the years, Moni fiercely protected her innocence: absorbing the world around her, exposing her feelings and thoughts through her paintings. And despite all the ugliness she endured, she was still able to find beauty in the most dire situations._

CM CM CM CM

"Here is your drawing, Hotch," Moni ripped a sheet from her notebook and handed it to Reid. He chuckled at it before passing it to Hotch.

"Let me see it," JJ leaned over, curious as to how Moni would represent their leader. She had already made caricatures from Rossi, Prentiss and JJ, each very accurate and funny.

JJ giggled at the sketch of Hotch with a cowboy hat on and leather pants, gun in hand, and firing shots in all directions.

"That's awesome."

"I'm not a cowboy," Hotch protested, frowning at the drawing.

"Of course you are, you always catch the bad guys. So you're a cowboy."

"She's right, Hotch. I think she hit the nail on the head." Prentiss teased while looking at her Queen of Hearts drawing. In it, her dark hair was a sharp contrast to her beautiful white dress with several hearts embroidered on it..

"How are you going to draw me, kid?" Morgan asked from his chair, his legs propped up on some pillows.

She glances thoughtfully at him, measuring him up and down. "Would you pose naked for me? I want to draw you _au naturel_."

"What?" Reid shrieked, outraged.

CM CM CM CM

_Jean Baudrillard also has a saying, _"There is no aphrodisiac like innocence."

_He was right, so right._

_- the end-  
_

* * *

a/n: Yes, this is over. No_w we will play with the next story. Will Reid and Moni live happily ever after? Will Moni adapt to DC? What if? _

_Many questions will pop out._

_My thanks for my amazing reviewers and readers, who made this story my most read story ever in one single day! Thanks thanks. You rock!_

_And for Kalia, you're simply the best.  
_


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